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Built between June 1932 and June 1933, the Jinnah Courts is protected under the Sindh Cultural Heritage (Preservation) Act of 1994 that says nobody including the owner of a protected site can carry out any construction, repairs and rehabilitation activities there without mandatory permission. It prescribes long prison terms and heavy fines for violators.

A structure has appeared above the barricaded boundary walls of the headquarters on Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road.

The building is being constructed between the mosque and the main entrance to the Jinnah Courts. Sources said if anybody wanted to carry out any repairs or construction at the protected site, they had to apply to the Sindh Culture Department that referred the matter to an advisory committee on cultural affairs.

Originally named as the Leslie Wilson Muslim Hostel, the Jinnah Courts had been constructed with donations from the people as well as local bodies of the province to provide residential facilities to the students who came from across Sindh to pursue their studies in Karachi.

Its foundation stone was laid in June 1932 and the building constructed at a cost of Rs189,00 was inaugurated a year later in June 1933. The hostel remained a place of high importance during the Pakistan Movement and Father of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Moham¬mad Ali Jinnah also visited the hostel. Soon after independence, the building was named after Mr Jinnah, according to the sources.

They said the Rangers had shifted their headquarters to the Jinnah Courts on a temporary basis in April 1999. Earlier the Rangers headquarters was housed in Sheikh Zayed Islamic Centre on University Road, but they had to vacate it when the United Arab Emirates government, which had funded the construction of the SZIC, raised the objections to its use by the law enforcement agency and said that the SZIC was meant for educational purposes and not for stationing of the paramilitary troops.

[Source: Dawn Newspaper | Coordinates: Talha Nasir | Photos from Google Map users]

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