The Sindh High Court sought comments from Sindh chief secretary, department of antiquities, Sindh Building Control Authority and Heritage Foundation on a petition seeking delisting of a heritage building, Krishna Mansion, from heritage sites.
Petitioners Imran and Muhammad Hanif, owners of the building, submitted that Krishna Mansion situated in Saddar Town was declared as heritage building in 1995; however, the building did not possess any historical or cultural value.
They told the judges that although a heritage building was exempted from tax but they had been receiving notices for payment of property tax under Section 81 of Sindh Land Revenue Act 1967.
They stated the building was constructed before the partition; therefore, it had fallen into disrepair as till date not a single penny was spent on its preservation by the authorities despite that an endowment fund trust for preservation of heritage sites of Sindh was established in 2008 with an allocation of Rs 1,000 million.
The petitioner submitted the SBCA had declared the building as dangerous and in need of immediate repairs but neither could they demolish it nor carry out repairs as an approval of the department concerned is prerequisite. They regretted they had time and again written to the department of antiquities for the approval but could elicit no response.
They requested the judges to order the authorities concerned to strike the building off heritage sites list so that it can be demolished or repaired as it was posing serious threat to human lives and surrounding buildings.
