HYDERABAD, June 4: Speakers at a dialogue held here on Sunday expressed concern over plans of some groups to occupy buildings of cultural heritage, and historical importance and relating to education and entertainment.
They called upon the Sindh cultural department to invoke section six of the Sindh Cultural Heritage (Preservation) Act 1994 to protect the heritage of the city.
The dialogue at the press club was organised by the Sindh Democratic Forum on “historical buildings of Hyderabad”.
In an unanimously adopted resolution, participants demanded that old buildings in Market, Hirabad, Amil colony and Kacha and Pucca Qilla should be classified as heritage property and no alterations be made in them.
A resolution said that demolition of the buildings would destroy beauty of the city which once remained capital of Sindh.
The resolution condemned occupation of heritage buildings by the district government and mafia.
The gathering warned the district administration and mafia to refrain from such plans and resolved to resist designs of plunderers, looters and qabza groups at all level.
The resolution called upon central and provincial governments to look into dealings of the Hyderabad district government and other agencies that were coming in to clash and collision with indigenous people of the city.
The resolution expressed concern over plans of groups of Hyderabad to occupy the collector’s house, Sindh University old campus and Dialdas club and other buildings of immense importance.
SDF convenor Ibrar Qazi said that conspiracy had been hatched to hand over cultural heritage of the city to the builder mafia.
He said that the people of Sindh were democrats and they should not be compelled to resort to extreme measures to save their heritage.
Gul Mohammad Umrani said that the NRB had proposed that deputy commissioner and commissioner houses should be handed over to the cultural department.
He said that even the Sindh Assembly and Sindh government had not been consulted by the Hyderabad district government while disposing of heritage buildings.
He said that in Karachi alone around 194 buildings had been acquired under the heritage act and the same should be applied to cultural heritage in the city.
MPA Zahid Bhurgari said that under the CM-MQM pact the latter had demanded 250,000 acre land off the Northern Bypass in Karachi and fifty per cent jobs in the province.
PPP leader Maula Bux Chandio said that the Sindhi people did not believe in racialism and they would not allow racialism by anyone in Sindh.
PML-N leader Afzal Gujjar, Mir Haider Talpur, Nisar Memon, Zulfikar Halepoto and Noor Hussain Shah also spoke on the occasion.
A 9-member lawyers’ committee was formed on the occasion to suggest legal ways to save Hyderabad’s heritage from the district government and mafia.
HCCI: The Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) on Saturday urged the district government to stop the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) from issuing route permits to unfit vehicles, ban smoke-emitting vehicles and ensure supply of potable water to people.
Addressing a news conference at the chamber, office-bearers of the HCCI expressed concern over increasing environmental pollution in Hyderabad.
