Karachi Indigenous Rights Alliance launched

Aim is to protect historic sites, goths

KARACHI: A group of nine men have formed the Karachi Indigenous Rights Alliance to protect the city's historic sites, lands, goths, waterways and culture.

The alliance introduced itself at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Monday.

The chairman, Saleem Baloch, read out a press release, flanked by heavyweights such as State Minister for Communication MNA Hakeem Baloch, MPA Haji Shafi Jamot of Malir's PS-129, historian Gul Hasan Kalmatti, Jam Abdul Kareem of Malir, well-known activist Yousaf Masti Khan and former nazim Khuda Dino Shah.

Some of these historic sites pertain to Shah Latif ka Taqya, Zoroastrian graves, the grave of Haji Notak who fought the British, 200-year-old graveyards, cup marks, Buddhist Stupas and Stone Age rock carvings in the east of Karachi. These sites are at risk if their land is acquired. Also at risk are their waterways.

Saleem Baloch referred to an order passed by the Supreme Court, on November 28, 2011, saying that the government cannot allot its land to private institutions. Contrary to this order, however, this has happened.

These developments also contravene the Land Revenue Act 1967 and the Sindh Gothabad Act 1987, he added.

The alliance had met earlier on March 3 at the Malir Press Club where a three-hour marathon seminar was held with several notable Sindhi nationalists such as Riyaz Chandio, Ameer Bhanmbro, Khaliq Junejo and the Pakistan Peoples Party's Raja Razzak. This was followed by presentations at Karachi University on March 4 by Gul Hasan Kalmatti who showed photographs of the sites and Dr Rukhman Palari who spoke of the route taken through Karachi by the figure of Sassui, one of Shah Latif's seven heroines, as mentioned in Shah jo Risalo among several other texts.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2015.