KARACHI: After partition newly formed nation decided to change names of buildings and streets named after the people who participated in development of Karachi city, said Akhtar Baloch, renowned writer, at seminar “The Narrative – Karachi Calling” held at Pakistan Arts Council, organized by IBA Literary Society.
He said that the same has happened with the monuments and streets related to prominent people which are non-Muslims. People, who migrated to Pakistan followed by the partition of British India, were not ready to accept that the newborn Islamic state for which they left their homes, already have streets and buildings named after non-Muslims.
The flag Staff House, now known as Quaid-e-Azam house, was also designed by a Jew Architect, Moses Somake, Baloch added.
“For some time they bared the burden on their hearts but later on they started practical efforts to eliminate these icons related to other communities or changing their names. The efforts were started with the monuments and buildings belonging to Jew community, probably since our disliking for Jews is historical,” he said, adding that there was a roundabout named as Abraham Chowk, which was later converted to Ibrahim Chock. And further to Cheel Chowk, in Lyari.
Interestingly when the roundabout was developed by the authorities they placed a monumental “Shaheen” of Allama Iqbal at the center, which was recognized as cheel by simple and common citizens. Similarly, in Ranchore Line area there was Synagogue Street, which was latter converted to Sharif Shaheed Street. “This was also felt by the Jew community so they started to migrate to other countries especially to Israel. I wonder why we dislike Jews that much and what did they do wrong when they were in Pakistan. These questions cannot be answered even by scholars and historians.”
“What happened to Jews who wanted to live in Pakistan with peace had to leave Karachi and how the synagogues which they use to call Jew Mosques were closed and the presence of Jews gradually started to eliminate from the streets, especially when this all happened.”
On the subject of presence of Jews in Karachi, Mehmooda Rizvia in her book “Malka Mashrik” “Queen East” has mentioned on Page number 146 that Jews are living in Lawrence Quarters. They are commonly known as Israelis. They also have a mosque and cemetery. They are known to be peaceful educated and professionals, but their population in very low. There are different statistics in few population consensuses done in the history of the country.
In one other reference Mohammed Usman Dammohi in his book “Karachi Tareekh Kay Aeenay Main” (Karachi in the mirror of History) wrote there was an old Jew graveyard on southwest of old Haji camp. Mehmooda Rizvia has also mentioned the cemeteries of Jews in Karachi.
“Before going further, we have to know about the Jews which have migrated from Karachi and how they are living their new life now.”
In this regard, renowned writer and journalist Mohammed Hanif is one of a few Pakistanis who has visited Israel. In his travelogue, which was broadcasted by BBC, Hanif talks about his meeting with a Jew, namely Denial, who used to teach in a school in Pakistan before migrating and how he misses Karachi and talked about his fellows with tearful eyes.
“Let us see how this Jew Mosque, which not only served for religious gatherings but also for social issues like protests and public meetings, is converted into Madiha Square. The last trustee of the building was a Jew lady, Reshel Joseph, who had passed these powers to Ahmed Ilahi, son of Mehar Ilahi, on basis of an agreement. According to agreement the new building has to have ground floor as shopping center, while the upper floors had to be Jew mosque. However, later the upper floors were converted into residential areas. We found that Reshel was in contact with a few journalists and lawyers till 2007. According to our information she also left the country.”
“In this search, our next aim was to visit Jew cemetery. In this regard our journalist friends have found out that a Baloch family is the care taker of the cemetery now. After quite a bit of pursuance we managed to gain trust and permission to visit this cemetery. That led to further discovery of people all around the world who wanted to know about their family members buried here.”
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