0
KARACHI, Oct 26: The Sindh government has directed the NED University of Engineering and Technology to stop illegal work being carried out on its old premises, which is protected under the Sindh Cultural Heritage Protection Act, it has been reliably learnt here.
According to sources, the NED’s old campus building, located in the city centre, is protected under the Act and nobody, including its owner, is allowed to carry out any construction, repairs or restoration work in a protected building. The Act prescribes long prison terms and heavy fines for violators.
The sources said that a NOC/permission was required from the advisory committee on cultural affairs, which is headed by the provincial chief secretary, before carrying out any work at a site protected under the Act.
An approval of plans is also required from the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) before carrying out construction work in any building in the city. The NED University, the sources said, has neither the mandatory NOC nor the permission.
The sources said that a decision to issue the stop-work directive was taken by the KBCA on Thursday and before the directive was even typed out, the information was leaked to the university. Subsequently at least two senior management and faculty members of the university called a senior KBCA official and during their long telephone calls, stretching over an hour, tried to persuade him not to issue the directive. During their conversations, the sources claimed, the university officials reportedly told the KBCA official that they were “making efforts” to call an emergency meeting of the advisory committee so that an NOC could be issued. They tried to assure the official that the NOC would definitely be issued soon.
The sources said that a faculty member of the university, Aneela Naim, was associated with the advisory committee as she had worked for its technical subcommittee. Dr Nauman Ahmad and Aneela Naim — both of the NED’s architecture department — were directly involved in implementing the illegal work in the university, sources said.
A breach of trust
The sources said that the KBCA official felt cheated because if the university did not have the NOC/permission, then why its officials lied to the KBCA team, when it had visited the university a few days back and had inquired about the ongoing work, and were told the NED had the NOC and permission.
The KBCA – keeping in view the stature of the educational institution – had trusted it and without directing it to stop the work had merely requested it to submit the NOC/permission with the KBCA the next day, a favour not usually extended to other builders.
The university officials, being economical with the truth, had also told Dawn that they had all the required permissions and NOCs when they were asked for their version by this reporter earlier, which was published a few days ago.
The sources said that now the KBCA official felt humiliated and was treating the university like any other builder working without mandatory approvals and had ordered that the KBCA directive be delivered to the university and pasted on its wall, and also sent it through a courier.
The KBCA directive to the NED University of Engineering and Technology with the subject of “addition/alteration work at (the) old campus, NED UET, without mandatory approval required under Regulation No. 15 – 3.1 KBTPR 2002,” says:
“With reference to the above, it is observed that addition and alteration work at the existing building is found under progress without obtaining (the) mandatory permission of (the) Advisory Committee for (the) Sindh Cultural Heritage Department and subsequent approval of this authority, which is in violation of Clause 15 – 3.1 of (the) Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations 2002.
“You are hereby advised to stop all sort of addition, alteration and construction work forthwith till (the) grant of requisite permission by the authorities (concerned).”
Responding to Dawn’s queries the KBCA’s visibly disturbed Building Controller Agha Maqsood Abbas said that the directive to stop work has been delivered to the university. He said that he had not expected that staff members of an education institution would exercise extreme economy with the truth.
The sources said it is unusual that despite being associated with the advisory committee, those people implementing the NED project did not take the mandatory approval. They cannot even claim that they did not know about the mandatory requirement of the NOC and approval from the advisory committee and KBCA before starting the work. They had applied for the NOC/permission but then started the work without waiting till the permission was granted, if at all.The sources said that the advisory committee’s job was to review proposed restoration work to be carried out in protected heritage buildings and stop the activities of violators of the act. Now, how much moral authority would its members have when a few of them were involved in violation of the same act that they are supposed to protect and implement.
Facts withheld?
The sources said that it also highlights another issue: the construction work of the project is being partly financed by a heritage conservation fund and the NED may have misled the organization and not informed the donor that it did not have the mandatory permission to carry out the work.
Another fact of the ownership dispute – between D.J. Science College and NED University – of the building in which the work is being carried, was also probably hidden from the donors. If the funding organization knew about these issues, it would not have financed the illegal project, insiders claimed.
The sources said that it was also a case of clash of interests, as the people who had served on the advisory committee and its subcommittee had also prepared and implemented the illegal project.
