KARACHI, Aug 20: Alterations to an 81-year-old heritage building, which the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) has just had vacated, were halted on Monday following prompt action by the provincial advisory committee for heritage buildings.

Declared protected in 1996 under the Sindh Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, the Haribhai Pragji Karia High School building is located on Chand Bibi Road behind the Civil Hospital Karachi and was built in 1926 by a local philanthropist. The school moved out after partition and the building lay abandoned for some time, after which it was given to the Civil Hospital Karachi which established a Doctors’ Mess there. Last week, however, the DUHS – which appears to own the premises – had this building and the Dow Medical College boys’ hostel vacated to prevent any repercussions to the killing of a Sindh Medical College student last Wednesday.

According to DUHS officials, the Doctors’ Mess had been encroached upon by “outsiders” and “illegal occupants” and the university administration called paramilitary Rangers to have the premises vacated and ensure security.

On Monday, officials of the advisory committee for cultural heritage received information about “some activity” in the Doctors’ Mess and subsequently found construction workers dismantling a structure on the premises, while a labourer erected bamboos across the façade of the once beautiful stone building.

In response to Dawn’s queries, the construction workers said that they did not know their employers’ plans. “We are only doing what we’ve been asked,” said one.

Reportedly, the alteration work was noticed by some citizens who, being aware of the value of heritage buildings, informed officials of the advisory committee. The authorities sent a team of the Karachi Building Control Authority which concluded that certain portions, which bear no relationship to the original structure, were being dismantled.

“DUHS officials told the KBCA team that the activity aimed to improve the building’s outer portions,” said a member of the advisory committee. However, he pointed out that regardless of intention, such activities at a heritage site are illegal unless permitted by the advisory committee, an autonomous body formed in 1994 through a provincial assembly’s act. “The advisory committee could permit such work if it becomes inevitable or enhances the beauty of a heritage building,” he added.

The Haribhai Pragji Karia High School building is located in front of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation and the advisory committee has approached the provincial health department to disclose the building’s status and hand it over to the SIUT. “We have written to the health department about handing this building over, for which the SIUT management is ready to protect the originality of the building,” said Dr Kaleemullah Lashari, one of the seven members of the heritage advisory committee.

That the building is sorely in need of a patron is evident from its currently dilapidated condition. Its sewerage system has collapsed and the seeping sewage is weakening the structure. The water pipes are in a similarly precarious condition, and the building’s original colour and texture have all but vanished. The broken doors, windows and thick layers of dust are evidence of its recent occupants/custodians’ attitude yet the structure soldiers on, its façade reminiscent of its once statuesque past.