KARACHI: A variety of views on heritage preservation were expressed at a seminar titled ‘Reimagining Karachi – Preserving Our Heritage’, organised by SEED Ventures in a local hotel on Saturday.

Sadaf Mahmood, co-founder of the Reimagining Karachi initiative, delivered an impassioned speech to set the tone of the event. She said the project sounded poetic, and justified it by saying that there’s nothing wrong in being poetic because it’s not “brick and mortar we’re talking about”. Nothing could be built from scratch without imagining it, she said. “Yes, we are poetic,” she said because “that’s what makes life beautiful, we are imagining it before we rebuild it”. She said dedication was needed to undertake such a project and rejected the notion that there were no experts or funding to do that. She added her team might not be architects but “we are patriots”.

Wajiha Naqvi spoke on the main objectives of the I Am Karachi campaign. She said it had three aims: to reclaim public space, to bring together members of civil society and to create awareness of the issues related to Karachi.

US consul general Brian Heath in his keynote address spoke on how in the United States, a relatively young country, people got to understand the importance of preserving heritage resulting in the making of relevant laws. He remarked “We’ve learned from our mistakes.” He said there was a US ambassador fund to support preservation of cultural objects and forms of cultural expression, and since 2001 the fund had been supporting cultural preservation in Pakistan. He also talked about the conservation efforts going on at Makli. He rounded off his speech by saying that Pakistan had a rich cultural legacy which was worth preserving for future generations.

The second keynote speaker of the seminar was Aga Khan Cultural Services Pakistan’s Salman Beg. His focus was on the two sites in Lahore which his organisation had helped preserve: Gali Surjan Singh and Shahi Hammam. With the help of slides, he told the audience that how the two projects looked like before attempts were made to conserve the historic places and how they turned out after they were successfully preserved.

Dr Asma Ibrahim shed light on the difficulties and challenges she faced while setting up the State Bank of Pakistan Museum. She said she had to work from a position where there were no collections, no theme and no team to carry out the job. Like Mr Beg, she showed the before-and-after images of the museum.

Panel discussions

At the first panel discussion, ‘The Crumbling Heritage’, speakers associated with conservation of history and buildings highlighted the reasons behind the sorry state of historical sites.

Salman Beg listed measures that could help in reclaiming such sites.

“Role of government, technical expertise, civil society and tangible benefits for local community can assure sustainability for such projects. However, political will is needed to conserve because without it it’s not possible to carry out any work.”

Kamil Khan Mumtaz, also from Lahore, said that instead of the name ‘I am Karachi’, the initiative should be ‘I am human’. “Identities must not lie in the parameters of geographical boundaries. This highlights differences and might lead to contention and contest,” he said.

He also spoke about the commercialisation of the Walled City and deplored that although the government had prohibited work, there were many who were making one basement after another in a portion behind closed doors, exploiting the city.

Akeel Bilgarami, who is also an architect, referred to the building used by the Indus Valley of Arts and Architecture as an example of a project. Instead of destroying the building, it was moved stone by stone to its present location from Kharadar.

Writer Salman Rashid said: “Total disregard for heritage whether historical or from lore has led to the crumbling heritage. Such sites are like umbilical cords that connect you to the land but we are in disconnect with history. We have lost our pride and have no identities. We can see Al-Bakistan number plates everywhere, which shows the state of identity confusion.”

In the second panel, titled ‘Initiatives that can make heritage useful for society’, journalist Ghazi Salahuddin lamented that with minds crumbling all around us, one couldn’t expect heritage sites to stay unimpaired. He said: “This society runs away from its history and it fails to appreciate beauty.”

He also showed his displeasure at the present state of Jehangir Kotahari Parade, which was gifted to the people of Karachi for their public space.

“It’s not just people because after Numaish Karachi, we have realised that city dwellers are desirous of public spaces and one only needs to make them come here,” said Saima Zaidi, the person behind the Numaish Karachi project.

Arif Belgaumi, an architect, lamented over the law and order situation and the role of state concerning conservation:

“Although it’s a heterogeneous city, all are in spite of each other. This city has seen degeneration; now it seems like mediaeval times with different clans fighting for power. The government helps only people it chooses to do so. Many people talk about the need to save the architectural sites but only a few do so.”

Former bureaucrat Dr Kaleemullah Lashari said that although the government did seem eager to support such causes, it tended to side with the powerful bodies when conflict arose, but nevertheless it was the government’s duty to ensure that the projects ran smoothly.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2015

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