Share Our Heritage with the World

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The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry has a stately and elegant look. The Karachi Chamber was established in 1860. By 1920 it had a membership of 63, only seven of whom were local companies. Jehangir Kothari was the first Indian member who was allowed to represent the chamber at an international event in Chicago (1893). A lot of creative architects also took part in the fair, which gave a boost to architectural activities across the globe. The building that was first constructed for the chamber was a modest one about which Charles Mules had famously remarked that it ‘belongs to early English cowshed period'. So they wanted a structure with some classical architectural features, hence the construction of the edifice which was officially opened in 1927.

To me, the OICCI is in a pretty good shape, and is kept clean. I remember once in Paris they sandblasted their old heritage sites to keep them safe from smog and other forms of contamination. If need be, the same could be done with most of Karachi's historic places.

[Source: Karachi Legacies of Empires by Peerzada Salman]

Open in Google Map: 24.8502169499727,67.0022427996811

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