IF you search for ‘Parsi Colony, Karachi’ on YouTube, you will find several videos of it. They all show the forlorn state of this architecturally significant and aesthetically pleasing residential complex, with each house built within a large compound.

I have pleasant memories of bicycling through this peaceful colony in the 1960s, when all houses used to be occupied by their Parsi owners. Today, most of them have left the country as we have grown intolerant to our minority communities.

If nothing is done to restore and reuse these buildings, they will turn into rubble over the next half-a-century. Or, at least, they will have their large precious stones removed by greedy property developers.

The Sindh government ought to pay the owners of these houses, restore them and set up some institutes in them. Some may be used as residences for artistes and researchers who would work there. One of these institutes ought to be a research centre for Parsi culture.

Over 25 years ago, a rather famed Management Sciences institution was set up in about four medium-sized houses. Those in Parsi Colony are surely far grander. With time, many of the institutes set up in them could move to bigger premises, if needed.

Q. Isa Daudpota
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2023