KARACHI, June 26: The Sindh Assembly Speaker, Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, who is custodian of the historic assembly building, has shown his keen interest in acquiring the adjacent buildings for the expansion of the assembly premises.

A plan to add a new spacious hall and construct additional committee rooms within the assembly building has long been under consideration. The new construction is supposed to be carried out on the style of the assembly building’s original architecture to ensure symmetery. The plan is basically

aimed at raising accommodation capacity owing to the swelled strength of the members.

One of the properties, proposed to acquired, is 258 RA Lines, located at the intersection of Court Road and Wafai Road and was once used to be the residence of Jamshed Marker, a former ambassador to United States and United Nations. At present, the building is in a dilapidated condition with much of its concrete structure decaying fast.

The other building is an abandoned charitable dispensary whose condition is no different from the one mentioned above.

Following the planned annexation of these properties, the assembly premises would become a compact block.

The 250 RA Lines has a board fixed at the site which reads only ‘AG Foundation’ to identify the owner trustees.

Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah believes that the owners of the either property might not be able to raise an office plaza or a highrise for any other purpose as such a construction is not permissible around a historic site where Pakistan Resolution was endorsed and the Father of the Nation had graced it by addressing the first constituent assembly of Pakistan.

He is of the view that these property owners could be compensated suitably if they agreed to make an appreciable contribution to the national cause.

In an informal chat with this reporter recently, Mr Shah pointed out that the present re-arranged capacity of 168 seats was raised from 114. Still, he added, the members feel uncomfortable due to congestion. Most often, he said, a member seeking consultation with his party’s leader or a minister sitting in some other row could not make it without disturbing as many as a dozen members on the way.

The covered area of the hall is sufficient to accommodate just 62 members and the seating arrangements were made 60 years ago when the strength of the assembly was not supposed to exceed its capacity. The assembly building was formally inaugurated on March 4, 1942.

Similarly, there are only 36 seats in the Press Gallery for which usually more than 300 passes are issued. For VIPs, the assembly hall has 16 seats in the VIP Gallery and over two dozen passes are issued to ex-legislators and other prominent figures willing to observe the proceedings. The position of Visitors’ Gallery (90 seats) and Officials’ Gallery (29 seats) is no different for which normally passes are issued to 800 and 50 visitors respectively.

As the cost of construction and other related services has increased unimaginably over the past decade, it will not be possible to get the work done according to the original estimates. The new construction includes raising of offices and chambers for speaker, deputy speaker, secretary and other essential staff of the assembly besides expansion of the main hall.

The PPP was in power when the government started realizing, in 1990s, that the province’s population was increasing rapidly and the strength of the assembly members would have to be increased in the near future. It also realized that further expansion in the existing building would not be possible for the purpose of accommodating the additional members.

Syed Abdullah Shah, the then chief minister, had proposed that a new assembly building be constructed in Malir. Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, who took over as caretaker chief minister following the dismissal of the PPP government, suggested the new location as Sehwan Sharif, instead of Malir.

A feasibility, prepared later, showed that the project would have an estimated cost of Rs45 million. Progress on the project could not be achieved in the following years due to adverse political situation and the issue came up for consideration only in 1998 when cracks appeared in the dome of the assembly building. This prompted the authorities to initiate a crash programme for immediate repair in order to protect the historic site from any major damage.

When the assembly’s strength was raised to 168 under the Legal Framework Order recently, an urgent need was felt for the expansion and renovation work as well as improvement in utilities like airconditioning and address system. According to a report, this repair and renovation work cost Rs55 million, 10 million more than the original estimate of the entire expansion work, and even after spending such a huge amount, the assembly hall still lacks sufficient seating arrangements and properly functioning systems.