Karachi Landmarks – Behram Bagh

Ruined. Plundered for years. A landmark enduring monumental negligence. Jahangir Park is part of history being erased slowly and painfully. Old tour guides used to mark the place as a must go. Not anymore. The Jahangir Park was donated by Khan Bahadur Behramji Jehangirji Raj Kot Wale in 1883. A fountain was built in the middle. The park was inaugurated on Nauroze in 1893. It was called Behram Bagh by grateful Karachi wallas. A pavilion was added in 1920s and the park started hosting cricket matches for local clubs. With increased political activity in 30s and 40s, it became a hub for political acivities.

You will still find children playing cricket around, amidst debris and trash. You can’t avoid seeing people taking drugs. All kind of it. Some are sniffing samad bond, some taking churs, some injecting syringes. The fountain is gone. People urinate in the pond now. The Vendors stationed around the park have found it an easy dumping ground. A mosque is the only new construction albeit illegally built. You can see majestic St. Andrew’s church behind the mosque. On the other side of the park Empress Market tower is visible. Between both, a narrow street leads to the shops built around Ediljee Dinshaw dispensary and Khyber Hotel. You will see abandoned reading room built some decades ago. It is closed now. People sit in its shadow waiting for being recruited for work.

The park was chosen by CDGK as an ideal place for building Car Parking Plaza. Supreme Court deemed it as improper use of public property and stopped its construction thankfully. However City Govt. has found the stay order to be an excuse to stop all sorts of development work. The park has been in this dismal state for years now.