According to sources, the illegal construction work is being under taken under the supervision of the city government’s works and services department and is being implemented by a private constructor.
Nobody including the owner could carryout any construction, repairs, restoration work in a building protected under the SCHPA, which prescribes long prison terms and heavy fines for violators.
A permission/NOC from the Advisory Committee on Cultural Affairs being headed by the Sindh chief secretary is required before carrying out any construction activity in the protected building.
All the flooring in the pre-partition ground plus two-storeyed school building, located on the M.A. Jinnah Road, has been pulled out and is to be replaced with tiles, marble etc.
Some partition walls had been pulled down while some others are to be constructed besides work was also being done on the ceiling of different rooms on different floors. While a large number of doors, windows etc, made of Burma teak had been taken out, and some repair work was being done on these. Some of these doors, window etc are also to be replaced.
Originally the “chuna – jute” plaster was used in the solid sand stone building, which over the years had deteriorated. It has been pulled out and was being replaced with cement concrete plaster.
Responding to Dawn queries on Tuesday Sindh Culture Department’s Additional Secretary Rabia Javery Agha said neither had anybody applied for the permission / NOC to carry out work in the school building nor had any such permission been issued by the department.
Confirming that the school building was protected under the SCHPA she said that it was a historical building and being one of the first government schools in the city it was constructed over 150 years back. The Sindh Assembly also held its sessions in this building for some time after the partition, as the original building of the Sindh Assembly was used by the federal government – as Karachi was the federal capital at that time.
Sources said that the Sindh Culture Department has also written a letter to the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) on the subject of illegal construction in the N.J.V. High School.
The letter informing the KBCA chief controller regarding the illegal construction directs him “you are therefore requested to inspect the site and make arrangements to stop the illegal construction if any.”
Talking to Dawn on Tuesday EDO Works and Services Syed Sarfaraz Ali Shah said that the Sindh Culture Department would be approached to get the necessary permission / certificate, soon.
The sources said that the government departments – Sindh Culture Department, KBCA etc – usually took immediate steps, when such illegal construction activities were carried out by private parties, but were reluctant to take any action when the illegal construction activities were carried out by any government organization.
Citing examples of the illegal construction activities carried out by different government organizations they said that the Pakistan Rangers constructed buildings in their temporary headquarter in Jinnah Courts without permission, shops were constructed by the Sindh High Court, construction was being carried out in the Customs House, a bungalow had been demolished by the army at the Lucky Star in Saddar, an old building was demolished by the cantonment board near the Arts Council, the house of Jehangir Kothari, a philanthropist who had donated the land on which Clifton resort has been developed, has been pulled down by the city government while carrying out the development work for a park recently, but the culture department as well as the KBCA had failed to take any punitive action against the SCHPA violations carried out by these organizations.
The sources said that an impression was being created among the people that only the private people were being targeted while government organizations were being treated as above the law.
They demanded that everybody should be treated as equal and similar action should be taken against all the SCHPA violators, so the credibility of the government could be established.