HYDERABAD, Sept 10: District Coordination Officer Aftab Ahmed Khatri on Monday recommended to the provincial secretary for home affairs to shift government offices and police station from the historic Pucca Qilla to some other place.

He said while presiding over a meeting on removal of encroachments from the historical and archaeological sites that the government had chalked out a programme for the rehabilitation and preservation of archaeological and historical buildings.

The meeting decided to remove encroachments from historical places under the first phase of this programme. Mr Khatri directed revenue officers to identify these places and make corrections in their revenue records that provided legal cover to the encroachments.

He assured the archaeological officers of full cooperation and administrative help in the rehabilitation of historical heritage. City Taluka Nazim Javed Jabbar, EDO of revenue Sajjad Hyder, deputy director of archaeology department, Mazhar Ali, deputy director of Sindh Museum, Abdul Haq Bhambhro, and director of building control HAD, Nadeem Rizwan attended the meeting.

Pucca Qilla was constructed by Ghulam Shah Kalhoro, the saintly ruler of Sindh, in 1768 when he founded Hyderabad on the site of ancient town of Neroon Kot.

Kalhoras and then Talpurs had ruled Sindh from the Pucca Qilla until the British conquest in 1843.

Hyderabad now the third largest city of Pakistan is one of the oldest cities of the sub-continent. Its history dates back to pre-Islamic times, when Ganjo Taker (barren hill), a nearby hilly tract, was used as a place of worship. The city traces its early history to Neroon, a Hindu ruler of the area from whom the city derived its previous name, “Neroon Kot”.