IF the smog is poisoning Lahore, it is perpetual neglect that plagues Karachi. Over the course of the past decades, the original portion of the city has been allowed to reach the point of erasure. Beautiful buildings that once held cafes and hotels have turned into mere façades and now even those façades are being torn down. Despite laws and regulations ordaining the maintenance of heritage sites and the preservation of old buildings, areas of Soldier Bazar, Kharadar, Jamshed Road, Parsi Colony, Clifton, and M.A. Jinnah Road are crumbling before our very eyes.
In some cases, good intentions have led to greater harm and even hazardous situations. One such project was the clean-up of the Empress Market. Prior to the ‘clean-up’, the area outside was peopled by a swarm of hawkers who sold everything from shoes to clothes to African grey parrots. This meant that the exterior of the building was not clearly visible to the people who were driving or walking past the colonial-era structure. In recent years, the hawkers have been moved from the area so that the area around the original market building appears tidier and cleaner. However, because hawkers, too, had to search and find their livelihoods elsewhere, they moved into the arteries surrounding the building, clogging roads in the process. Instead of finding a proper place for the hawkers removed from Empress Market, they were forced to relocate themselves in nooks and crannies.
In fact, a number of residential neighbourhoods in the old parts of the city are now........