|
|
|
| December 17, 2005 | Saturday | Ziqa’ad 14, 1426 |
New GHQ will be functional, not luxurious: ISPR
RAWALPINDI, Dec 16: A military spokesman on Friday rejected as “ludicrous propaganda” the Opposition’s criticism of the new General Headquarters complex to be built in the federal capital. Unlike the “eighth wonder of the world” that some allege the new complex was planned to be, it would focus on the “improvement of functioning rather than providing luxury”, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told a select group of mediamen invited to the existing 150-year-old GHQ building here.
Gen Sultan, who heads the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) department of the military, said the complex would house the Ministry of Defence and the Joint Staff Headquarters also.
Though 2,400 acres of land has been acquired in sectors E-10 and D-11 for the purpose, he said the Defence Services Complex will cover about 1,500 acres only.
Offices of Ministry of Defence, Joint Services Headquarters and all services headquarters will occupy 206 acres and the GHQ only 99 acres. The remaining area will be used for building flats, houses, schools and hospitals for over 17,000 employees of all grades, he said.
Much of the remaining land would retain its pristine nature, with 870 acres providing a security belt and some 350 acres covered with woods and running streams.
Gen Sultan dispelled “allegations” by politicians and “impressions” created by the media that the complex would cover 2,450 acres, that “17,000 luxury flats” were planned and lakes would be created in the complex grounds.
In fact, the area acquired for the complex was 2,400 acres — at the same price that other government departments paid to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for the land allotted to them — and 14,000 flats are to be constructed for defence employees of grade 1 to 19, he explained.
As for the lakes, he said the reality was small reservoirs were being built to store clean water of the nullas flowing from Margalla hills to irrigate the green area so as to conserve sweet water for drinking purposes.
“There will be no personal property of anyone within the Defence Services Complex,” the general asserted, rejecting as “irresponsible statements by frustrated individuals” that a housing society was planned inside the GHQ.
Gen Sultan said the master plan of Islamabad provided for the establishment of the defence services headquarters and the decision to shift GHQ from Rawalpindi to Islamabad was taken by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1972. CDA allocated land for the purpose in 1981. The GHQ would be shifted to new location in phases over the next five to 10 years, he said.
Seventy per cent of the barracks of the present GHQ complex constructed in 1852 when the site was selected as Sub Area Command of the British Army and was never designed to contain as big an installation as GHQ, he reminded.
|
|
|
|
