Mohatta Palace Karachi,Sindh



The Mohatta Palace is located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. It was built by Shivratan Chandraratan Mohatta, a Hindu Marwari businessman from modern day Rajasthan in India, as his summer home in 1927. The architect of the palace was Agha Ahmed Hussain. However Mohatta could enjoy this building for only about two decades before the independence in 1947, after which he left Karachi for India. He built the Palace in the tradition of stone palaces in Rajasthan, using pink Jodhpur stone in combination with the local yellow stone from Gizri. The amalgam gave the palace a distinctive presence in an elegant neighborhood, characterized by Indo-Saracenic architecture which was located not far from the sea.

At Partition in 1947, Mohatta Palace was acquired by the newly established Government of Pakistan to house its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When the Foreign Office moved to Islamabad in 1964, the palace was given to Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah. After her demise in 1964, her sister Shireen Bai lived here until her death in 1980. The property then went into litigation and remained sealed until 1995. It was then formally purchased by the Government of Sindh, in conjunction with the Federal Government, to house a museum that would foster awareness and appreciation of the cultural heritage of Pakistan and of the region. 


The Mohatta Palace can be appreciated for it's architecture or it's vast gardens. The museum displays exhibits displaying artifacts from both public and private collections. The Museum has grown from three galleries in 1999 to forty four in 2005. The gardens also host daytime storytelling events for children or evening events for corporations. 

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