ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided to revive its abandoned and controversial Shakarparian Culture Complex project.
Worth Rs1.1 billion, the project was started during the tenure of former CDA chairman Kamran Lashari. It was abandoned in 2009 after spending Rs420 million when 28pc of work had been completed at the site.
“Alhamra of Islamabad [culture complex] started by Kamran Lashari in 2004. Work abandoned soon he left. Currently an excellent example of negligence and inefficiency. Restarting work and naming it Margalla Centre. God bless Pakistan,” CDA Chairman Noorul Amin Mengal tweeted on Thursday.
According to the PC-I, an auditorium, amphitheatre, piazza administration block, two cinemas, a conference hall, a seminar hall and a cafeteria along with a coffee shop were to be constructed on the 28.5 acres.
Work on building at Shakarparian was started in 2004 and abandoned in 2009
CDA officials said the inordinate delay of 14 years has already occurred and financial resources incurred on the project needed to be salvaged.
“The partially completed structure of the culture complex needs to be completed and utilised properly to safeguard public money spent on it, preferably realising the investment made in the structure thereon where ever possible,” read a document of the CDA prepared in 2017.
The document also said most of the building had been substantially completed except for the auditorium and amphitheatre.
CDA officials told Dawn that the unfinished building looked like a haunted structure and that the CDA never made any serious efforts to revive the project.
The project ran into controversy and there were also allegations of corruption leading to an investigation by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Sources said Mr Mengal visited the site and expressed his concerns over the abandoned project. He directed the engineering wing to take steps to revive the project.
CDA officials said the project was started without conducting any feasibility study as in the presence of Lok Virsa and Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA), there was no need for the project. However, they said when civil work was done and millions of rupees were spent, there was no justification to keep the project abandoned.
They said the leftover work should be carried out to bring the building under use. They said F-9 Citizen Club, G-10 Ladies Club and Art and Craft Complex were were similar projects which were started during Mr Lashari’s tenure but could not be completed on time.
The F-9 citizen club, which is now Gandhara Culture Centre, has been completed and recently Islamabad literary festival was held there. Similarly, a few weeks ago the CDA board renamed G-10 Ladies Club as Islamabad Gymkhana and decided to complete the leftover work. The G-10 club’s grey structure building is complete but it requires finishing touches.
Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2023
