KARACHI, Dec 3: Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani on Tuesday initiated a project of 200-suite hostel complex project for provincial lawmakers which will replace the old building of MPAs hostels on Sir Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah Road.

To be built on a 1.4-acre plot, the new complex will have two buildings with 17 and eight storeys. The buildings could accommodate 150 men and 50 women lawmakers. The complex will include parking lots, security stations, power generators, firefighting and alarm system, book shop, beauty parlour and other facilities.

The estimated time for the completion of the project is 42 months and it would require Rs1,720.45 million, to be provided by the provincial government, federal government and other grants. Each member’s suite will have two bedrooms, kitchen, lounge and other facilities.

Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony of the complex, Mr Durrani said he had an attachment with the old MPA hostel complex as it was built by his father. “My father built this building in 1941 for bachelor members of the provincial assembly,” he said.

The speaker said the project was initiated by former speaker Nisar Khuhro. Former President Asif Ali Zardari also took a keen interest in the completion of the new assembly building and hostels for the provincial lawmakers.

He said the project would be completed in three years if the federal government provided grants to the provincial government on time.

Speaking on the occasion, Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Faisal Sabzwari said the project was a positive step by the government to provide residences to the lawmakers. “Some people will term it an excessive spending by the government, but it should be remembered that the democratic institutions cannot prosper until their representatives have basic facilities,” he said.

He demanded that the completion period of the project be reduced and it should be completed before three years.

Pakistan Muslim League-Functional leader Nusrat Sehar Abbasi said the project would fulfil a long-awaited demand of the women lawmakers living away from Karachi.

She further applauded the construction of a beauty parlour in the complex.

Deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly Shehla Raza supported Nusrat Abbasi’s views and said women lawmakers would now easily live with their families in the city. Residences of the speaker and the deputy speaker will be on the top floor of the buildings. She said the project would be completed soon if funds from the federal government arrived on time.

Education minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said that earlier the MPAs hostels were given on rent by provincial lawmakers to their relatives and other guests from the interior of Sindh. “It is our property and if we will not save it, then whatever facilities we will provide to lawmakers, they will be destroyed within days,” he said.

Consultant of Osmani and Company Private Limited Inam Osmani, MQM leader Syed Sardar Ahmed, minister for parliamentary affairs Sikander Mandhro and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lawmaker Syed Hafizuddin also spoke.—PPI