The forgotten fort of Hyderabad.

Byline: Filza Rizwan and Rabia Bugti

HYDERABAD -- When you enter Pakka Qila, the stench of sewage and garbage rush up to greet you, while crumbling walls loom large over you. The fort - also known as Pucco Qillo - has been there since Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro founded the city of Hyderabad, in around 1768. As centuries have passed, time has not been kind to it.

After Partition, the fort, built by Kalhoro on a hillock known locally as Gunjy, was turned into a temporary refuge for those who migrated to Pakistan from India. State apathy and neglect for the refugees, though, meant that they had nowhere else to go. And so they stayed.

Today, 72 years later, thousands of people still live within its once-formidable walls, while their encroachment and the continued disregard of successive governments have left the qila a derelict ghost of its former self.

A refuge for the displaced

According to archaeologist and historian Dr Kaleemullah Lashari, the historic monument was inhabited by refugees from India after 1947. 'Those who migrated to Hyderabad initially made camps in the open spaces of the fort. Gradually, though, they began using the cellars in the fort walls to shelter themselves from nature,' he explains. 'It was never meant to be a solution for the resettlement of the refugees, but the situation dragged on for an undesirably long period.'

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Where parts of the walls have caved in, tuition centres mingle with tailors and cobblers - enterprising residents have set up small shops to practice their professions. Inside them, though, the walls are in no better condition; cracks and holes abound.

'People have created kitchens and washrooms in the fort's walls, and the abundant use of water has weakened them,' says Dr Lashari. 'As a result, portions of the walls collapse frequently, which have killed many people too.'

Preserving the past

Faced with an increasingly dilapidated qila, the Sindh antiquities department proposed a plan for its preservation. The scheme envisaged the construction of 350 apartments on municipal land near the fort, where the Pakka Qila's residents were to be resettled. This was to be followed by careful preservation work to safeguard the historic structure and prevent more people from being struck down by falling portions of the wall.

The plan was approved by the Provincial Development Working Party and funds allocated for it. But the scheme's...