THE cruelty meted out to the architectural beauty of Karachi has been much lame-nted by concerned citizens over the years, only to fall on deaf ears in the civic agencies thriving on their connivance with the construction mafia.

As a result, scores of old colonial era buildings have vanished from the face of Karachi. The concretisation of Safari Park, Hill Park, Aziz Bhatti Park, Jheel Park as well as many other pristine areas in Karachi in the name of so-called ‘beautification’ is another story.

The Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) would not be left behind. It looked for some ‘opportunities for beautification’, and finally got down to beautifying the natural beauty of the seafront, applying its creativity to improve upon the uncorrupted beauty of the shores. The closest target was the Seaview area, from the Dolmen Mall to the Village restaurant.

As such, vast portions of the beach were concretised, construction of restaurants that blocked the view of the sea was allowed, hundreds of electricity poles with fancy lights (all pillaged in no time) were installed, hundreds of expensive fully grown palm trees (all withered and gone with the wind) were planted, and freshly laid lawns were watered with fresh water that was scantily available to the area residents.

In essence, massive civil work to carry the sewers to the sea was already in place with the simple aim of polluting the sea. The place now matches the ugliness and filth in other areas of the so-called ‘City of Lights’.

Two things are common in almost every plan. One is material, such as cement, concrete, steel, bricks, blocks, aggregate, electricity poles and fancy lights. The other, of course, is the lack of aesthetics, with creativity and good taste being foreign to contractors and corrupt officials.

Carnage around the grand Bagh Ibne Qasim, spread over 130 acres, is another sad story. It is being vandalised and destroyed constantly on a daily basis. The pillared boundary wall around the park in many places has been systema-tically broken, and its fancy pillars have been stolen for iron rods.

Unsurprisingly, no notice has so far been taken either by the CBC or the police. Even the massive wrought iron gate at the back has been torn apart and only its skeleton exists today. A big plan and budget in millions, if not billions, for rebuilding must be on the cards.

There is a pertinent question to raise: is it not an irony that the Sindh Environ-mental Protection Agency (Sepa) granted the no-objection certificate to the CBC to ‘beautify’ (read, destroy) the seafront?

S.M. Shahid
Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2024