HYDERABAD: Four houses built right against the fortification wall of Pucca Qila along the edge of a hill suffered serious damage when a section of the wall caved in on Monday.

Nobody was hurt in the incident but at least six rickshaws and three motorbikes were damaged when the debris from the wall fell over them.

The houses (Nos 568, 571, 572 and 575) were located in one of the labyrinthine localities inside the Qila, a protected monument under the Antiquity Act 1975. They were owned by Syed Hashmat Ali, Mohammad Anwar, Imran and Azizulllah and their families had temporarily taken shelter with their relatives in the same area after the district administration asked them to immediately vacate the dangerous houses.

According to Abdul Rehman, who works for a private company that manufactures rickshaws, four new rickshaws and two old ones were badly damaged by the debris.

He said that three motorbikes of labourers were also damaged. “We were always in fear the houses built on the edge of the wall can collapse any time and some people had also conveyed their fears to local officials but in vain,” he said, adding that a portion of the wall had caved in during 2011 rains also.

Hyderabad Deputy Commissioner Motasim Abbasi, who visited the area along with regional director of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), Tazmir Asim, and local representatives of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), said that families living in the damaged houses had been asked to vacate the premises immediately while the remaining families whose houses were also in the danger zone, which was identified in a survey, would have to evacuate in the second phase.

He said the SBCA and revenue officials would conduct a survey for the second phase and after the families vacated the houses the structures would be demolished in a technical manner to avoid losses to lives and property on the other side of the Qila.

“People can’t demolish the houses on their own as it can be dangerous for them as well as for others,” he said. The families who would be affected in the second phase could be accommodated in flats of labour department, he added.

Around 260 families, according to an old survey conducted during the district government’s tenure, were living in the proximity of the fortification wall which was declared dangerous by SBCA.

These families had outright rejected offers by authorities concerned to shift to a camp and continued to live in their houses putting their lives at great peril.

These houses were categorised as A, B, C and D under the survey. Categories A and B include the houses which are in dangerous condition. Category-C lists the houses which are dangerous but not likely to collapse while category-D has such houses which are situated within 16 feet distance of the wall.

The Section 22 of Antiquity Act 1975 says that no development plan or scheme or new construction on or within a distance of 200 feet of a protected immovable antiquity shall be undertaken or executed except with the approval of director general.

Houses were constructed in violation of the law whereas Qila itself and its wall had not been maintained over the years. The archaeology department had expressed inability to look after the wall unless encroachments in and around the structure had been removed.

Many sections of the Qila wall had collapsed over the years and in one such incident three people had lost lives in the past. Some houses were built right against the fort wall and the inmates had dug the wall to make holes through it for ventilation and disposal of sewage.

In 2000, the Hyderabad Development Authority staff along with highway and archaeology department officials had marked spaces to vacate 16ft wide corridor but the houses’ demolition was postponed for fear of protest by people. There was another proposal to persuade people to shift to Junejo Colony but it too did not work.

Former president Pervez Musharraf had announced Rs50 million for the rehabilitation of Qila residents during his visit of Hyderabad on Aug 26, 2003, and the district government had decided to construct 500 sq ft flats on abandoned land of Markaz-i-Mehran, a joint venture of HDA, but it too did not materialise.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2016