QUETTA: The Quaid-i-Azam Residency in Ziarat that was destroyed in a rocket and arson attack last year has been restored to its original shape and is likely to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at a ceremony to be held on Thursday to mark the Independence Day.

The restoration of the building cost over Rs140 million and the work was completed in four months.

The governor and chief minister of Balochistan, provincial ministers, military officials and senior bureaucrats will attend the ceremony.

Over 700 police and Frontier Corps personnel have been deployed in Ziarat valley.

PM likely to inaugurate the restored building today

The residency was attacked on the night of June 15 last year. The entire wooden structure was gutted and articles used by the Quaid-i-Azam and kept on display there were reduced to ashes.

After the incident, the federal government and many businessmen and other persons offered to provide funds for restoration of the residency, but Chief Minister Dr Malik Baloch announced that the work would be carried out by the Balochistan government from its own resources.

A committee headed by former chief secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad was set up for the project and Rs50m was allocated for it.

The work was taken up in March at the end of winter under the supervision of Abdul Jabbar Khan Kasi, technical adviser to the Communications and Works Department.

Prominent architect Nayyar Ali Dada was assigned the job of preparing the design of the building.

Additional Chief Secretary for Planning and Development Ali Zaheer Hazara said the residency was a national monument and its restoration was Balochistan government’s Independence Day gift to nation.

According to Mr Kasi, the wood work covers 7,000 square feet of the total building area of 8,000 square feet. A workshop in Lahore prepared the pieces of weed and the stone used in parts of the building was brought from Domiara mountain near Ziarat. The stone used in the original building was from the same mountain. He also said the building could withstand even a severe earthquake.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2014