THIS refers to the letter ‘Destroying heritage’ (July 30). The letter was written in response to a July 21 news story about a survey that was carried out by the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) that had found some 422 ‘unsafe’ buildings, including 55 protected heritage structures in Karachi.

The SBCA has thus asked the Sindh culture department to remove the 55 ‘dangerous’ buildings from the heritage list. If this had happened in any other country, the real emphasis would have been on saving the heritage buildings and restoring them, instead of destroying them altogether.

This suggests that planning is well underway to hand over the city’s most precious heritage sites to the construction mafia to help them use the valuable space for erection of some more shopping malls and commercial buildings at the expense of the city’s cultural heritage.

The provincial government seems hell-bent on spoiling the city’s historic silhouette and unique landscape by adding more eyesores.

Syed Jawaid Iqbal
Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2020