AS I stood before the Baweja Building in Saddar recently, watching scaffolding rise not for restoration, but for what appeared to be unauthorised structural alterations, I felt a profound grief for the heritage that is fast disappearing before my eyes with every passing day. We are systematically erasing the very landmarl(s that sustain the city’s identity, trading our unique stone-carved history for the generic, soulless aesthetics of glassand-concrete plazas.
It makes no sense that while the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) allocates a handsome budget for new projects, the historic quarters of Saddar and Kharadar remain in a deteriorating state. I have wall(ed through the narrow lanes of the old city area and seen how colonial-era balconies and Anglo-Mughal facades are allowed to crumble until they are declared ..47 Tam7h’N’JW &.V .> I=’! w ‘.I’dilapidated’, which is a convenient label that clears the path for builders to tear them down. Why do we still see heritage as a burden rather than a massive economic andculturalasset? In citieslike Istanbul and Baku, ‘adaptive reuse’ has turned historical monuments into the beating hearts of tourism industries. In Karachi, my desire for a ‘heritage walk’ is often met with confusion, as if the only thing worth seeing is some new shopping mall or a flyover. The authorities should move beyond just’sealing’buildings after the damage is done.
If we do not act now, the next generation will grow up in a city that looks like a carbon copy of any other mid-tier metropolis. We are losing our stories one brick at a time, and I, for one, am just not ready to say goodbye to the soul of our city.
Maheen Nasir Karachi