KMC stopped from installing gates around Frere Hall

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday ordered the demolition of the concrete structures recently erected on any and all sides of the Frere Hall’s garden.

The court also restrained Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Administrator Murtaza Wahab from interfering with any heritage building or site in the city until the next date of hearing.

The order came on a lawsuit of a heritage architect against the construction work at the Frere Hall by the KMC that is stated to be in violation of the Sindh Cultural Heritage (Prevention) Act 1994.

Plaintiff Marvi Mazhar said she is a serving member of the advisory committee on heritage set up by the National History & Literary Heritage Division, and questioned the construction of gates on all three sides of the premises by the KMC.

Her counsel Mohammad Jibran Nasir said that the historical Frere Hall garden, which was originally called the Queen’s Garden, had access from three sides, but the KMC was erecting concrete gates at all three sides in violation of the Sindh Cultural Heritage Property (Identification, Enlistment and Protection) Rules 2017.

He said the plaintiff and other residents of the city had approached the heritage department to put a stop to such illegalities, and had also written to the KMC parks director to immediately stop the construction of the gates in front of the Frere Hall because it was blocking the view of the heritage site and aimed to hinder the public’s access to the site.

The counsel said that the act of the KMC was in continuation of its attempt to privatise and gentrify the site, which had been in existence since the past 160 years and cherished by everyone living within the four corners of the city.

He said that a number of individuals appeared on site and tried to stop the illegal construction work, but Wahab seemed to lack the keenness to understand the sophisticated aspect of the city’s growth, and that its architectural beauties needed to be preserved over centuries.

He also said the construction of boundary walls on all three sides of the Frere Hall was in utter violation of the law as well as offensive to the heritage and architectural value of the social, library and meeting place for people from different walks of life, of which the first notice should have been taken by the administrator himself.

The court was requested to declare the ongoing constructions by the KMC at Frere Hall as illegal and in violation of the heritage laws.

After the preliminary hearing of the plaintiff’s counsel, a single bench of the SHC headed by Justice Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan issued notices to the KMC, the heritage department and others, calling for their comments to be filed on June 27.

The court appointed the office associate of the SHC registrar office as commissioner to visit the site and to ensure immediate demolition of the concrete structures recently erected on any and all sides of the Frere Hall’s garden.

The high court directed the KMC administrator to appear in person, along with his reply, on the next date of hearing, and in the meantime suspended his intrusion in any heritage building or site of the city, including the Frere Hall.