HYDERABAD: The district administration intervened to stop construction of a ground plus five story plaza on a plot for a ground plus five story plaza near 17th century Pucca Qilla’s rampart.

The plot was carved out after demolishing fortification wall of the fort seven and a half years back, prompting culture and antiquity department to lodge an FIR over damage to a 55-foot piece of the fort wall.

The plot spread over 2,600 square feet was said to be owned by one Mr Shaukat who claimed to have purchased it from a builder. Work on the site remained suspended since the culture department’s legal action.

According to the owner’s claim, the plot was leased by katchi abadi department of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) and that he had got its layout plan approved from Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA). The plot was located in the area popularly known as Gali number-1 of the fort.

Pucca Qila had been protected heritage site under the relevant law of Antiquities Act, 1975. A large population lives inside the fort and it also houses some government buildings. The plot’s lease was cancelled by then taluka nazim reportedly during the tenure of Kanwar Naveed Jamil as the city mayor.

The lease’s cancellation was challenged in civil court where HMC staff did not pursue it ‘purposely’ as it did in other cases. HMC’s staff often acts in this manner for pecuniary considerations on a case to case basis.

The owner again attempted to restart the construction work after clearing debris from the plot. He started the work on the night of Jan 14-15 (when LG polls were scheduled).

However, Hyderabad deputy commissioner Fuad Ghaffar Soomro learnt about it on the polling day and got the work stopped through mukhtiarkar concerned. Since then the work had been put on hold.

DC Soomro confirmed to Dawn over phone that he had also spoken to Sindh secretary of culture Nasimul Ghani Sahito who told him that he had directed the staff concerned of the antiquity department to intervene.

According to an antiquity official, Ms Sindhu Chandio, it was she who got the work stopped after learning about it. “I have sent my report in this regard to the department’s high-ups,” she said.

Nasim Sahito, however, told Dawn over phone that antiquity officials had been asked to look into issue as Pucca Qilla was an antiquity.

According to Ms Chandio, as per HMC’s record Pucca Qilla was spread over 16 acres whereas according to archaeology department it was located over 38-12 acres. “A survey is now going to be started for archaeological sites in Hyderabad from Jan 20 by settlement survey and land records which will determine the actual area,” she said.

Culture department’s lethargy

Sindh culture department has shown lethargy to Pucca Qila’s restoration work. It has not even rebuilt yet the 55ft portion of the demolished fortification wall of the fort. Only in September 2021, the fort’s facade had collapsed during ‘conservation’ work. A case was lodged against the contractor. The video showing the façade caving had gone viral at that time.

According to Ms Chandio, the culture department has sought review of the order of civil court on an FIR lodged by the then deputy director Abdul Haq Bhambhro, son of Sindh’s noted intellectual Atta Mohammad Bhambhro.

Haq had said then that the soil and stones excavated from the site had been removed and the plot thus created had been filled with loose soil to bring it to surface level with the road as the ‘plot’s owner wanted to set up a godown on it’.

“The original stone wall measuring about 50ft, located in street number-1 on the eastern side of the fort has been demolished with the help of 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 Haq’s e-mail sent to his DG. Since June 2015 the fort’s wall remained unattended for inexplicable reasons.

DC Fuad Soomro said that katchi abadi department of HMC had issued purportedly issued the lease document to the owner. “It is not Sindh government’s Katchi Abadi Authority that has issued the document,” Soomro said. He said that he would look into the documents as the matter was reported to him.

Sindh’s ruler, Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro had built the fort in 1768 after he founded Hyderabad city. After Kalhoro dynasty fell to Talpurs, Mir Fateh Ali Khan Talpur abandoned Khudabad and shifted his capital to Hyderabad in 1789.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2023