More evidence of the significant impact of Islamic Fanaticism on cultural artifacts in Karachi:

KARACHI (AFP) - Karachi is alone among its mega-city peers to have no significant public artworks, victim of decades of religious fanaticism likened to the Taliban destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, but artists here are beginning to turn the tide. 

"What the Taliban have done to the ancient Buddha's statue in Bamiyan a few years ago, fanatics and ruthless government functionaries did to Karachi's statues long ago," says Shahid Rassam, lamenting the dearth of public artworks in Pakistan's biggest city. 

Rassam is one of a handful of local artists working to revive Karachi's public art, which flourished under the British Raj in India and survived for a couple of decades until the early years of military dictator Zia ul-Haq. 

But public art crumbled under Zia, as culture became an early casualty of a regime that nurtured religious fanaticism. 

The rot had set in under Zia's predecessor, Abub Khan, the first in a long line of military rulers, who held power from 1958-1969. 

"The religious extremists launched the first campaign against beautiful statues in Karachi during Ayub Khan's rule when the city was stripped of most of its street artifacts," says former city official Saifur Rehman Grami. 

Art enthusiast Grami says old Karachi was dotted with huge statues, at that time appreciated across religious boundaries. 

The monuments survived sporadically until Zia seized power in a military coup in 1977 as Pakistan reverted to military rule. 

His 11-year tenure encouraged sectarian Islam and religious extremism prospered as he imposed curbs on cultural activities. In the process, he gave extremists the freedom to ruin the remnants of Karachi's glorious statuary, says Rassam.

 "General Zia ul-Haq's period remains a nightmare for art and culture during which Karachi suffered the most, because this city was the cultural hub of Pakistan," Rassam says.

 "Even many years after the creation of Pakistan most of these statues were allowed to be erected at various gardens and public places but since the late 1970s the wave of extremism uprooted all these monuments," Grami says.

 Scores of sculptures depicting British rule are now little more than a folk memory after being uprooted and destroyed.

 Mohammad Ahsan, a resident of Karachi's Old Town, says he witnessed the destruction of his locality's history.

 "Khori Garden was one of the most beautiful parks of old Karachi. There were many statues of those who played a great role in making Karachi the cleanest city in the world, including a huge statue of Queen Victoria.

 "All these monuments were either destroyed or displaced in the 1970s and 80s and the old fountains and water troughs were completely ruined," he says.

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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\09\04\story_4-9-2007_pg7_15