SHC directs Sindh govt to provide alternative space for Jufelhurst students

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed on Thursday the provincial education department authorities to provide an alternative place for students displaced following demolition of the heritage building of the Jufelhurst Government School in Soldier Bazaar.

The 86-year-old Jufelhurst Government School in Soldier Bazaar area of Karachi was reduced to rubble Sunday night.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar, also sought the original record relating to the heritage-declared building along with comments by the next date of hearing, which will later be notified by the office.

The matter was taken up in the court by a non-profit group, Amity International, which had sought a judicial inquiry into the demolition of the building and action against those responsible for it.

The group had named the secretaries of the provincial heritage and education departments, the IG police and director-general (DG) of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), as respondents in the petition.

The group’s president, Mehfooz Yar Khan, said the builder mafia in connivance with police, revenue and building control authority officials had demolished the heritage building of the school and a bungalow on April 9.

Taking up the matter on Thursday, the judges issued notices to the provincial education and heritage and culture department secretaries, the IG and SBCA DG to file their comments. In the meantime, the bench ordered the education authorities to ensure that alternative space to study was provided to the students of the Jufelhurst School.

On April 11, Sindh IG Allah Dino Khawaja nominated AIG Aftab Pathan to conduct an inquiry into the matter while Soldier Bazaar SHO Irshad Soomro was suspended before the investigation even started and later on arrested along with over a dozen other suspects.

Jufelhurst Government School Principal Muhammad Shafiq claimed that the SHO and his officers just watched as the building mafia entered the premises with heavy machinery and demolished the pre-partition heritage site.

AIG Aftab Pathan, who has been tasked to inquire into the case, said the responsibility of stopping the demolition lay with the SHO but he failed to fulfil that responsibility. AIG Pathan vowed that the three men nominated in the incident’s FIR will not be able to flee the country.

The FIR was registered after School Education Department Secretary Abdul Aziz Uqaili investigated the matter and wrote a letter to IG Khawaja on Sunday, requesting an FIR be lodged against the land mafia and their police collaborators.

Meanwhile, a judicial magistrate remanded on Thursday a suspended SHO and three other officials to police custody for their alleged involvement in demolition of the school.

Suspended Soldier Bazaar SHO Irshad Soomro, ASI Hakim Ali, Mukhtiarkar Ahmed Memon, Surveyor Ghulam Fareed Chauhan and some other persons have been booked for allegedly demolishing a pre-Partition-built mansion, declared a heritage site by the government, housing a school, on the night of April 8.

The Counter-Terrorism Department, tasked with the investigation of the case, sought physical remand of the suspects from a District East judicial magistrate for questioning. The court sent the suspects in CTD custody on physical remand for three days and sought a progress report from the investigation officer on the next hearing.

Three suspects – Abid Qureshi and Zeeshan and an official of the Federal Investigation Agency, Adnan – have obtained interim pre-arrest bail from a court.

Source: The Express Tribune