KARACHI: The Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Department has declared 206 historical buildings of Karachi as Sindh’s protected cultural heritage sites under the Sindh Culture Heritage (Preservation) Act 1994. The declaration has been made under sub section 2 of section 6 of Sindh Culture Heritage (Preservation) Act. A notification has been issued in this regard by Secretary Ghulam Akbar Laghari, also inviting objections from the general public which will be considered before the passage of the final notification. “On the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on the Sindh Cultural Heritage, these building are being declared as protected heritage sites,” stated the notification. These buildings include colonial era Empress Market, Hindu Gymkhana, Ram Kirshan Nawab mason, Mama Parsi Building, Burns garden, newly renovated Pakistan Chowk, Aram Bagh, Sobhraj Chetumal Maternity Home, Freemasons Lodge (also called Sindh Wildlife Building), Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) building, Muslim Gymkhana, NED University old city campus, Dayaram Jethmal (DJ) Science College, Old State Bank building (Victoria Museum), Haji Abduallah Haroon Building, Sindh Zamindar Hotel, Shams Lighthouse Building, Coffee (Wasumal building) House, and Ganga Ram Building. The Sindh Cultural Heritage (Preservation) Act of 1994 is an Act to preserve and protect historical places, buildings and objects of architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, ethnological anthropological and national interest in the province. Since 1994, about 600 buildings have been declared as heritage monuments in the province. Majority of these sites were already declared protected heritage site by Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Department, but in 2017, Sindh high court in an order cancelled the status of all the cultural heritage buildings in the province followed by complaints by some of the owners of old buildings in which they plead to the court that there was no cultural value of the building but the department has declared them as protected sites. On contact, Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sardar Shah said that in 2017, Sindh high court in a verdict cancelled the status of all the declared heritage sites in Sindh, after which a committee was formed and now on the recommendations of the committee, the cancelled sites are again being declared as protected heritage sites. Shah admitted that in the past his department had wrongly declared some of old buildings as heritage sites, but now his department was checking the status of sites more carefully. “We have started working on the declaration of heritage site and not just those buildings and places which were declared heritage site and were cancelled by the court, would be again declared as heritage site, but we are also working on new sites,” he said. He said the buildings would not only get the status, but his department would work for preservation and renovation as well. Published in Daily Times, April 7th 2018.