August 5, 2002	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 25,1423

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KARACHI, Aug 4: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to launch its Club House project in the vicinity of the National Stadium.

The project is expected to begin October and the first phase is likely to be completed well inside 12 months and will include sports facilities and a main building with lobby and dining hall.

In this context, a high level meeting of the PCB, presided by Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, was held Saturday evening.

“The chairman has constituted a four-man project and five-man rules committees and has issued clear instructions that there should be no compromise on quality. He wants that the Club House should be head and shoulders above the rest,” Razaullah Khan, manager National Stadium, said.

The project committee includes Chishty Mujahid, Asghar Valika, Mohammad Naeem, Irfan Mirza and Saleem Swaleh while the rules committee is Bashir Ahmad, Iqbal Umer, Asghar Valika, Zahid Bashir and Mohammad Naeem.

Irfan Mirza, the secretary of the project committee, said the Club House will have a maximum of 5,000 members and the membership would be Rs300,000 that has to deposited in three instalments. He said in the first phase, only 1,000 memberships would be accepted on first-come basis.

Irfan, whose brainchild is the picturesque UBL Sports Complex, added that the presentation of the project and shortlisting of pre-qualified consultants would be done inside four weeks.

Tauqir, who was keen to get the work started on the project, said his establishment not only owed it to the cricketers but also towards the society.

“For a healthy society, we need healthy environment and the PCB realizes its duties towards that. PCB has never lacked in social service and would continue its contribution in that context,” Tauqir said.

During Tauqir’s tenure as PCB chairman, the infrastructure and development work, that has been ignored by his predecessors, has improved tremendously.

Overall in Pakistan, more than 55 stadia are either being uplifted or built, including five alone in Karachi. Two more grounds in this port city will be created — a service this city would remember for years to come.