Pakistan : NAPA will not vacate Hindu Gymkhana

NAPA will not vacate Hindu Gymkhana



By Razzak Abro

KARACHI: The management of the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) has rejected the contents of the notice issued by the Sindh Provincial Culture and Tourism Department, ordering NAPA to vacate the Hindu Gymkhana. They are determined to protect the institute whose mission is to preserve and promote the country’s rich legacy of classical, traditional and contemporary performing arts.

“We are not going to vacate the building and will defend our position at every forum. We will go to the court of law if pushed”, said a senior NAPA official on Thursday.

Daily Times has learnt that the management of NAPA is engaged in preparing a reply to the notice issued last week by the Culture and Tourism Department, asking the NAPA management to vacate Hindu Gymkhana within 90 days. The Sindh Government leased out the premises of the Hindu Gymkhana to NAPA under an agreement in September 2005.

Violation: In their notice to NAPA the Sindh Culture Department has alleged that NAPA has violated the agreement by putting up a theatre within the premises, and that this act violates the provisions of the Sindh Heritage Act.

However, NAPA officials deny the allegation, saying that they have not made any alteration to the original structure of the building. “The theatre under construction stands on the site where the Sindh Government had already raised a ramshackle construction, long before NAPA was established,” said one official. He added that the in-house theatre was constructed with the full approval of Karachi Building Control Authority and that documents were available to prove this point. In his opinion, the establishment of the Academy inside Hindu Gymkhana had actually saved the building from decline and destruction. “We have not only kept the original façade of the building intact but restored it to its original grandeur”, he said.

NAPA officials also dismissed reports that the minority community owns the building. “After partition it was declared an evacuee trust property”, one official said. Talking about the post-partition history of the building, he said that it had remained under the control of the Federal Government. For some years, soon after partition, it was occupied by the office of the Federal Public Service Commission. He was not sure when, but at some stage probably during the 70s, the Central Government handed it over to the Sindh Government under some kind of a barter agreement.

Before it was leased out to NAPA, the building was kept locked. Its grounds were used for holding wedding feasts. Many influential people had hosted parties here; sometimes fashion shows were held on the premises. The building was damaged here and there.

NAPA sources said that the premises had once comprised more than 20 acres and the land on which blocks of flats had been constructed as well as the grounds used by the Aligarh Old Boys Schools Association, were also a part of the Hindu Gymkhana compound.

NAPA officials and students see a malicious intention in the provincial government’s attempt to get the building vacated. “It appears to be a very vindictive move,” remarked one student. Without mentioning the name of Pervez Musharraf, he said that if the present provincial authorities had some problem with the centre (Musharraf’s regime), it should not damage an institute such as this one.

NAPA students are upset that after the political change in the country, the federal government slashed the institute’s grant by around 70 percent. “We cannot understand this. We had hoped that with Asif Ali Zardari as the President of the country, the Academy would benefit because he believes in progressive Pakistan, and NAPA is a symbol of that dream” said one senior student.

The students rule out the possibility of accepting an alternate site for the institute, arguing that it was selected only because of its ambience and architecture. “And what will become of our theatre?” One group of anxious students asked, pointing to the half-completed theatre. “When completed, this will be the first state-of-the-art theatre in the country”, they said, adding that they could not move it to any other place.

Student call: The students felt that the government was trying to ruin Pakistan’s only institute of its kind. The Government, they said should support the academy. The students were worried that the ouster of NAPA from its premises would lead to the closing down of an Academy which had already gained prestige and recognition. “In India there are dozens of such institutes and the government patronizes them with pride,” they said.

A music students who is learning classical singing informed this correspondent that owing to the death of ‘gharanas’, NAPA was the only Academy where students could learn ‘gayeki’ not just exclusive to the style of one gharana.

A member of the Music Faculty told this correspondent that apart from holding classical concerts NAPA’s Music Ensemble had staged many concerts of an experimental nature, on stage and on television, which had been received with enthusiasm. Daily Times learnt that NAPA was making a serious effort to revive an interest in some of our rare instrument which were dying due to neglect.

On the theatre front, the productions of NAPA’s Repertory Theatre Company, composed of NAPA alumni and graduate students have been praised very highly in the press. The theatre-going public looks forward to a NAPA play. In the last one year alone NAPA has staged five full length plays of a wide variety. An important enterprise of the company is their work on translating major dramatic works from across the globe.

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