Many towns and cities across Pakistan have a profile built on centuries of history and traditions, but unfortunately they do not receive the attention they deserve. On the contrary, most historic towns in Pakistan today face an unfortunate erosion of their built environment, caused by ill-planned policies and careless management systems that disregard their intrinsic historic values. The internationally recognized concepts introduced through philosophies and principles in the arena of urban area or historic town conservation – more recently termed ‘Historic Urban Landscapes’ – offer a well-developed framework of management systems that help recognize historic environments in their entirety, not just as artefacts or monuments for the pleasure of the privileged few, but as living cities and live cultures providing opportunities for economic incentives to residents, and enriching experiences to visitors and other stakeholders. These concepts, however, have yet to find their way into common practices, perceptions of policymaking and administrative systems dealing with heritage assets within Pakistan. The consequence of a lack of capacities in this field is the consistent loss of traditional built environments in most historic centres within the country, particularly those left behind in the race for urbanization and development investments.

A case in point is the city of Shikarpoor, today a small town in Upper Sindh with a population of less than 0.2 million (GoP 2009). Previously, it enjoyed the status of being the most populated and prestigious urban centre in the region, playing an important role as a hub for trade and commerce in the extensive network of caravan routes connecting Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran with India. Its strategic location, south of the Bolan Pass, distinguishes it as a gateway and entreport to Afghanistan, Khelat and the Khorasan. Located about 15 miles west of the Indus, at 68049’19.18” E and 24044’52.93” N, Shikarpoor gained importance from the perspective of trade, commerce and, to a great extent, the political interests in the region, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Towards the mid-eighteenth century, the city came under complete control of the Afghans, who encouraged Hindu merchants to settle there and carry on trade through Afghanistan to Central Asia and India. Shikarpoor soon became one of the two cities of Sindh with a Hindu majority (the other being the port town of Karachi), in an otherwise Muslim dominated region.