The Neglected Colonial Beauty Of Karachi

“Every brick of the heritage building narrates a story of those who left in 1947,” said Akthar Baloch, a researcher.

Karachi is well-known for its heritage buildings but sadly only a few of them are well-preserved while others can be categorized as the neglected beauty of Karachi. Therefore, the experts rightfully fear that the city might lose its rare buildings over the years due to the government’s neglect and encroachment by land grabbers.

With the growing population of a city that is mushrooming into a mega-city, the prevailing attitude of real estate agents is to demolish and build better buildings that will generate more money.

Mostly the British architectural buildings are concentrated in the Saddar area. The remnants of the British era can still be seen, easily recognized by their state of neglect.

A few are such examples

Nigar Cinema

What once used to be a center of cultural activities is now been used as a godown by a local businessman. However, the place has been closed since 10 years not due to financial reasons but because of our collective apathy towards the culture of arts and crafts.

Now what exists of the place is its battered structure, a rusty billboard, and an uncanny sculpture of a lion that has sadly been vandalized by supporters of a certain political party.

150-year-old Jaag Nath Akhara Temple

Used to be a worship place for Hindus but now it’s not in use anymore due to neglect of the concerned authorities.

The inside of the temple is full of portraits of Hindu Gods — mainly Kali Mata who is the goddess of death and the final day.

A building, built in the British colonial period, stands in Karachi, Pakistan, February 19, 2018.[Photo/Akhtar Soomro/Reuters]

The caretakers of the temple fear that if the government or the Hindu Trust fails to take any steps to protect this site the landgrabbers will take over and in a few years, a giant concrete plaza will exist in the very place this sacred temple exists.

Clock Tower

The renowned Clock Tower stands lifelessly in the heart of Karachi’s most famous area- the Lea Market.

The bottom of the tower cannot be seen due to local vendors surrounding it. The rusted clock’s hands have been stuck at 11:45 am/pm for the last few decades. This begins to show the negligence that such historic monuments face in Karachi. Like the exterior, the interior too is not in good shape. The wooden windows are either broken or dislodged.

The dysfunctionality of the clock gives us no hope of a better future for these colonial buildings. Because if they can’t fix a mere clock, how will they fix entire dilapidated buildings?

But these are just to name a few of many such heritage buildings.

Many such old beautiful buildings have been reduced to the ground while the authorities took a backseat in watching their destruction.

Just to name a few

Palace Hotel on Club Road was demolished to be replaced by Sheraton Hotel.

Jehangir Kothari Building on Victoria Road

And the list goes on and on with all the old cinemas which are now warehouses, old mansions, and offices that have fallen victim to encroachment

Due to negligence, a sizeable number of these heritage buildings have been declared dangerous, but this is just a tactic by the builder mafia to demolish them and to build commercial plazas In their place. And in majority of the cases, residents or the owners aren’t taking any interest in their preservation there are multiple reasons for this.

The buildings exist in places where the land values have increased tremendously and consequently, the owners and occupants believe that if the buildings are left to deteriorate there will come a time when these buildings will completely be destroyed and the builders will be able to construct new high-rise buildings.

So there’s a lot of awareness I think that we have to bring among our politicians and the general public and most importantly we have to make people feel that they can also play a role in saving their city’s beauty from fading forever.

Such beautiful buildings and statueus can be easily transformed into art galleries and museums but all it requires is funds and willingness to preserve the colonial beauty of Karachi.

By Umama Siddiqui