By: Sana Waggan
Karachi, a city with fortune of ancient and historic places a city of strong heritage where a lot of historic events took place. It has always enjoyed central position in history always been an important city even before the British rule. The picture of Karachi that is in minds of its old inhabitants is still a place with glorious buildings, clean wide roads, peaceful environment and pleasant weather, but now most of the sites have either completely vanished or are in the last year of their worldly existence. These are the buildings which have seen their best days and now are been destroyed slowly due to lack of proper renovation and maintenance. What was once “a city of lights” has been turned in to a lost city .
The history of karachi dates back to the greek times, they called the area of Karachi by many names: ‘Krokola’ where Alexander the great camped in Sindh to prepare his fleet for Babylonia after his campaign in Indus valley. ‘Morontobara port’ the modern Monara Island from where Alexander’s admiral sailed for back home and ‘Barbaricon’ a seaport of the Indo-Greek Bactrian Kingdom. Arabs know it as ‘port of Debal’ from where Muhammed Bin Qasim led his conquering force into South Asia.
This city started as a fishing settlement where a fisherwoman Mai Kolachi started a family and then a village grew out of this settlement known as ‘Kolachi-jo-Goth’. When Sindh started trading Karachi gained importance and a fort was constructed having two main gates, one facing sea known as ‘Khara dar’ and the other facing lyari river known as ‘Meetha dar’ these gates corresponds to present day city localities of the same names.
District Karachi was the first capital of Pakistan but in 1958 Rawalpindi took its place. The inflow of refugees from India at the time of partition and from Afghanistan even after that made the city’s population to grow exceeding its resource influencing its infrastructure in a very negative way, that marked the downfall of this city as well as the demographics changed.
I have always heard people, who lived their whole life in Karachi talking about Karachi a city that was, in old days and has lost its glory and charm.
Some of the most valued buildings and places in Karachi worth mentioning are:
Frere Hall built in honor of Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere (1815-1884), who was known for promoting economic development in Karachi. This Hall is located between Abdullah Haroon Road formally Victoria Road and Fatima Jinnah Road formally Bonus Road. It is surrounded by a vast lawn. Frere Hall was used as a Town Hall during British Raj and in it were kept a number of busts including King Edward VII’s which was a gifted from Seth Edulji Dinshaw and oil paintings of former Commissioners in Sindh.
Mohatta palace is one of the favored buildings because of its architecture. It is on of the buildings that is well maintained from inside out with well decorated rooms. Magnificent structure, unique in its own style and location making it a tourist appeal.
MA Jinnah Road is a perfect place to go and see a true picture of Karachi because it is a place which is surrounded by historical or inherited buildings after independence . If we see these buildings nowadays, u will see only old worn out walls, no building is in perfect condition, have red and blue paint marks but still recognizable from their constructive patterns.
Empress Market is a gothic style single story building with a central tower up to 140 feet high with exquisite leopard heads carved at its top four corners. The building has a clock tower imposed with a clock that is no longer working has skeleton iron dials. What it looks like now portrays a sorry picture of what once would have been a majestic building, with weak walls, spray painted and moss covered.
Jehangir Kothari Parade is the terraced parade that provide access to the sea. At one end of the parade is the elliptical structure built with Gizri limestone and jodhpur stone has an octagonal seat in the centre used as the band stand in old days. Even this building is not given the importance and maintenance it deserves.
It is worth mentioning the old transport that was in Karachi. Looking at the overcrowded roads and pollution on our roads in present days makes one remember the trams and well maintained train system that was in old days. That was the life style of old Karachi residents, that was not beyond maintenance, cheap transport accessible to everyone.
Everywhere in Karachi the story is the same. Most of the heritage has been destroyed in fact the surviving buildings survive only due to their inhabitants.
All those old buildings that are not being renovated and looked after properly are the soul of the city, portraying the image of the real beautiful mesmerizing Karachi it was.
