HYDERABAD: The Fort police seem to be reluctant to register culture department’s FIR in respect of the extensive damage caused to a heritage building, within the proximity of the historical Pucca Qila.

An official of the department, Zawar Rukn ul Din Qureshi, on May 18, had approached the Fort police with a written complaint for the registration of an FIR into the large scale digging on the ground floor of the 1939 building.

The written request was made by the deputy director of the Archaeology and Archives department.

Despite the lapse of two days, the Fort police have not registered the case against the building owners, represented by Mohammad Faisal. Mr Qureshi has approached the Fort SHO twice over the last two days but without a positive response.

Registration of FIR requested by deputy director of culture department

Mr Qureshi is the focal person of heritage and cartographer in the culture department.

In his letter to the SHO, the deputy director has mentioned that a big fire had erupted in the building on May 3. In the ensuing physical inspection of the premises, unauthorised digging/excavation by the property owner was found in a portion of the site. He termed it “a gross violation of Section 10(i) of Sindh Cultural Heritage (Preservation) Act 1994”.

The letter informed the SHO that neither any prior permission was obtained from the competent authority nor had any application ever been submitted before the department for such works. It said that all activities undertaken at the site were unauthorised and illegal.

The deputy director stated that the property was a “declared heritage site” where any repair, maintenance, alteration, addition, new construction, demolition, excavation or any other structural work could be carried out only after due process through the technical/advisory committee constituted under Section 3(i) of the 1994 Act.

He said the owner and other persons involved in the activity unlawfully damaged the heritage structure without obtaining mandatory approval from the department. He also clearly mentioned that the unauthorised acts committed by Mohammad Faisal and others attract penal consequences under Section 18 of the Act which warranted legal action against those responsible.

He requested the Fort police to register an FIR against Mohammad Faisal and others for causing damage to the heritage site.

When Mr Qureshi was contacted on Friday, he said that the head munshi at the Fort police station appeared not ready to record his statement verbatim regarding the incident and “he wanted me to amend or modify the contents of the statement to which I did not agree”.

The focal person stated that he had requested the police official to record his statement along with all details of the property and the damage caused to it. Mr Qureshi said that he had accordingly informed the DG Antiquities & Archaeology, Abdul Fatah Shaikh.

SHO Fort police station Hashim Brohi told Dawn on Friday that he was not aware of the matter and that he would look into it upon reaching the police station.

The registration of the FIR was recommended by a subcommittee of the department’s technical committee after it found Mohammad Faisal’s reply to a show-cause notice ‘unsatisfactory’.

The building owner had dug trenches on the ground floor of the 87-year-old heritage property. The fire that had erupted on its first floor on May 3 had also caused damage to the upper portion. It was the second fire within the last two years at the same building.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2026