Heritage department to revise list of protected properties, SHC told

A technical committee of the provincial culture and heritage department would revise the list of 1,061 properties declared protected and efforts were afoot to resolve the issue of status of heritage properties at the earliest, the Sindh High Court (SHC) was informed by the provincial law officer.

The court was told the above, while hearing the Karachi Property Investment Company’s petition, seeking delisting of Hotel Metropole from the list of heritage sites.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the heritage department had issued a list of 1,061 protected heritage sites in May, 2011, which included the hotel despite not having any historical or archaeological value. He requested for the property to be delisted so that renovation and repair work was carried out at the site. 

The counsel also sought adjournment since the respondents had agreed to take the site’s name off the list.

Adjourning the matter till February 8, the court directed the law officer to submit the committee’s findings and also ensure appearance of the concerned secretary before the court.

Detention cases

The SHC directed provincial and federal law officers, IG Sindh and other concerned officials to file their comments on petitions against detention of several citizens, including an assistant professor of a medical university, by law enforcement agencies personnel.

Petitioners including Syeda Salma Kanwal, Mohammad Waqar, Tasneem Fatima, Arif Sheikh, Mohammad Azam, Saqib Jamal and Abdul Razak, maintained that law enforcement agencies’ personnel picked up Syed Sabir Ali, Mohammad Zulfiqar, Wajahat Ali Rizvi, Afzal Sheikh, Javed, Arif Jamal and Dr Abdul Rehman from Baldia, New Karachi, Maymar, Surjani Town, Qayyumabad, North Karachi and Gulshan-e-Jamal areas.

They submitted that neither detainees were produced before any court of law nor were details of the cases against them disclosed to family members.

Petitioner Abdul Razak submitted that his son Dr Abdul Rehman, an associate professor at the Dow University of Health Sciences went missing from Gulshan-e-Jamal. He expressed apprehension regarding the life of the detainee.

The court directed the concerned officials to file their comments and adjourned the hearing for February 8.