HYDERABAD: A large portion of the fortification wall of the 17th century Pucca Qilla, a protected heritage site, was dismantled overnight and levelled to the ground right under the nose of authorities but sadly this brazen act of vandalism failed to elicit a quick and effective response from the government. Excavation has been continuing for constructing a godown for one week.

The severity of the crime that took place on May 24 could only be matched with extremists destroying historical monuments and artefacts in Syria and Iraq.

The soil and stones being excavated from the site are removed and the plot thus created is now being filled with loose soil to bring it to surface level with the road as the ‘plot’s owner want to set up a godown on it’.

This correspondent visited the site and found no trace of the wall left. “The demolition took place last week with machinery but late night excavation is continuing mostly,” said an area resident on Monday.

According to the purported owner of the plot, Shaukat, he had purchased the property for Rs10.5 million from a builder Maqsood Sarwari.

The Hyderabad Municipal Committee administrator, Khalid Mehmood, who has earned a reputation of being tough in handling the HMC’s property issues, said he had sent the staff concerned to inspect the site and had coordinated with the civil administration also. “But it’s wrong. I’ll have to see documents amid claims of kutchi abadi,” he said.

Abdul Haq Bhambhro, deputy director of the Culture, Tourism, Antiquities and Archaeology Department, said that he had reported the matter in an email to his DG last Tuesday.

“The original stone wall measuring about 50ft, located in street number-1 on the eastern side of Pucca fort has been demolished through heavy machines at the instigation of builder mafia and the excavated soil has been taken away from the site covering an area of about 1,890 sq. ft,” said his mail.

The fort is a protected archaeological site but no government has ever paid any attention to its conservation for a variety of reasons. One very obvious reason appears to be a violation of law by the very law enforcement agencies which are supposed to enforce it.

A police station, residences of frontier constabulary personnel and a school exist on the fort premises although the Qilla is a protected site under the Antiquities Act, 1975 under which no construction activity can be undertaken within 200ft of the outer premises of any such site. So any kind of construction inside such site is out of question under the law.

The fort’s outer wall has been crumbling brick by brick for years and its large parts often collapse in monsoon season when seepage of rainwater weakens it.

The disputed plot first drew attention of then MQM-backed district nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil who asked his taluka nazim, Shabbar Chishti, to cancel its lease.

Mr Chishti had then claimed the lease had been granted under forged documents and therefore he cancelled it and suspended an HMC official as well who later got himself reinstated thanks to his connections with then MQM leaders. After lease cancellation, it is learnt, the owner moved civil court where HMC’s Kutchi Abadi staff didn’t purposley pursue it strongly, leading to a decision in owner’s favour.

“I bought it [plot] two years ago,” Shaukat said. “I have all the documents like the registry issued by government departments concerned,” he explained, reacting as if he was completely unaware of the plot’s status as being part of a heritage site.

“It is an area of around 2,600 sq. ft and only garbage had been lying there which we have removed,” he informed.

The plot adjacent to a charitable hospital on one side and a government school on the other is abut onto a living quarter which had once remained occupied by Rangers and other law enforcement agencies.

A sub-inspector of Rangers, Shahid Hafeez, had occupied this space while he lived in an adjacent quarter in the early 90s. Since then it had been changing hands from one owner to the other.

“Part of the Qilla is considered kutchi abadi as well and many applicants used to approach us to get a ‘fard-e-haqqiyat’ issued by HMC but we avoided it and only in genuine cases that met required parameters of kutchi abadi regulations were such documents given,” said a retired employee of Kutchi Abadi Authority.

Pucca Qilla, spread over an area of 38 acres, was constructed by Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro in 1768 when he founded the Hyderabad city, declaring it as the capital of his kingdom. He built buildings for defence and civil purposes.

After the Kalhoro dynasty was replaced by the Talpurs, Mir Fateh Ali Khan Talpur abandoned Khudabad and shifted his capital to Hyderabad in 1789.

The fort is now inhabited by third and fourth generation of families of refugees who had settled there after migration from India under extraordinary conditions. Its name splashed all over the national media after the infamous Pucca Qilla operation conducted during the first tenure of Benazir Bhutto government on May 27-28, 1990.

Most families live along the fortification wall which has grown so weak over the years that many portions of the wall have collapsed during rains, bringing down with them the houses built over it. But the families refuse to leave despite warnings and despite the fact their continued activity keeps weakening the very foundations on which their houses stand.

The HMC has also jurisdiction over the fort on the basis of a kutchi abadi inside the fort, which has led to irregularities and malpractices. The fort area is a stronghold of MQM. In 2012 MQM’s MNA Salahuddin had a gymnasium built inside the fort area at a cost of Rs24 million out of his development funds.

The archaeology department lacks teeth to handle occupation of heritage sites and take action against vandals. Its role is restricted to issuance of notices to departments and agencies like Hyderabad Development Authority and HMC which has issued entitlement slip (fard-e-haqqiyat) to people, declaring their area as kutchi abadi in 1978.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2015

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