(adapted from Wikipedia and online sources)
Mohatta Palace, in Karachi, Sindh province of Pakistan, has been a lucky place--due to its connection to late Mst Fatima Jinnah, sister of the Quaid i Azam M.A Jinnah (founder of Pakistan) it has got a better fate than most old houses and mansions in other parts of Pakistan. It has become a properly maintained museum and gallery today.
It was originally built by Mr Shivratan Chandraratan Mohatta, a Hindu Marwari businessman from modern day Rajasthan in India, as his summer home in 1927.The architect of the palace was Agha Ahmed Hussain. However, Mohatta could enjoy this building for only about two decades before the independence, after which he left Karachi for India, in 1947. He built the Palace in the tradition of stone palaces in Rajasthan, using pink Jodhpur stone in combination with the local yellow stone from Gizri. The amalgam gave the palace a distinctive presence in an elegant neighbourhood, characterised by Indo-Saracenic architecture which was located not far from the sea.
After Mohatta's departure to India, the Government of Pakistan acquired the building to house the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1947. Mst Fatima Jinnah, the sister of the Quaid-i-Azam M. A Jinnah, moved into it in 1964 as it was lying empty and she had no place to stay. In the '60s Mohatta Palace was dubbed 'Qasre-e-Fatima', becoming the hub of her presidential campaign against military dictator, President Ayub Khan. After her questionable sudden death, her sister Shireen Jinnah moved in to occupy the ground floor for many years. With her death in 1980, the palace was sealed.
In 1995 it was purchased by the Government of Sindh for its conversion into a museum devoted to the arts of Pakistan. As a result of the interest taken by the Government of Sindh which took over the ownership of the property and appointed an independent board of trustees headed by the Governor, to formulate recommendations on how best to adapt and use the palace, the building was saved. The trust was established to manage the property and ensure that it would not be sold or utilised for commercial or any other purpose other than that stipulated in the trust deed.Funds for the acquisition of collections for the museum and the construction of an extension will be raised by the trustees through private and public grants, donations and other fund raising activities.The Museum formally opened in 1999. Behind the building can be found a small collection of "English" statues such as Queen Victoria, soldiers of the Raj etc.
One wishes other provincial governments and the central federal government also had this sort of vision, to save many other places whilst these are still there.
Also see :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohatta_Palace
http://www.mohattapalacemuseum.com/
(c) Mohatta Palace site, 2014, with thanks and acknowledgement
Mohatta Palace, in Karachi, Sindh province of Pakistan, has been a lucky place--due to its connection to late Mst Fatima Jinnah, sister of the Quaid i Azam M.A Jinnah (founder of Pakistan) it has got a better fate than most old houses and mansions in other parts of Pakistan. It has become a properly maintained museum and gallery today.
It was originally built by Mr Shivratan Chandraratan Mohatta, a Hindu Marwari businessman from modern day Rajasthan in India, as his summer home in 1927.The architect of the palace was Agha Ahmed Hussain. However, Mohatta could enjoy this building for only about two decades before the independence, after which he left Karachi for India, in 1947. He built the Palace in the tradition of stone palaces in Rajasthan, using pink Jodhpur stone in combination with the local yellow stone from Gizri. The amalgam gave the palace a distinctive presence in an elegant neighbourhood, characterised by Indo-Saracenic architecture which was located not far from the sea.
After Mohatta's departure to India, the Government of Pakistan acquired the building to house the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1947. Mst Fatima Jinnah, the sister of the Quaid-i-Azam M. A Jinnah, moved into it in 1964 as it was lying empty and she had no place to stay. In the '60s Mohatta Palace was dubbed 'Qasre-e-Fatima', becoming the hub of her presidential campaign against military dictator, President Ayub Khan. After her questionable sudden death, her sister Shireen Jinnah moved in to occupy the ground floor for many years. With her death in 1980, the palace was sealed.
In 1995 it was purchased by the Government of Sindh for its conversion into a museum devoted to the arts of Pakistan. As a result of the interest taken by the Government of Sindh which took over the ownership of the property and appointed an independent board of trustees headed by the Governor, to formulate recommendations on how best to adapt and use the palace, the building was saved. The trust was established to manage the property and ensure that it would not be sold or utilised for commercial or any other purpose other than that stipulated in the trust deed.Funds for the acquisition of collections for the museum and the construction of an extension will be raised by the trustees through private and public grants, donations and other fund raising activities.The Museum formally opened in 1999. Behind the building can be found a small collection of "English" statues such as Queen Victoria, soldiers of the Raj etc.
One wishes other provincial governments and the central federal government also had this sort of vision, to save many other places whilst these are still there.
Also see :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohatta_Palace
http://www.mohattapalacemuseum.com/
(c) Mohatta Palace site, 2014, with thanks and acknowledgement
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