KARACHI, Aug 31: The foundation stone of the new Sindh Assembly Hall was laid on Friday jointly by Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah.

The ceremony was held in the backyard of the Assembly Building, where its new hall block would be built with a capacity for 350 members. The project, likely to be completed within two years, is estimated to cost Rs620 million.

Tenders for its construction are yet to be invited, and according to chairman of the Building Committee Senior Minister Syed Sardar Ahmad, the entire process will be ensured to be transparent. Once the process of granting contracts is complete the work will be carried out day and night.

Before unveiling the plaque, which has all 168 assembly members’ names, Chief Minister Arbab Rahim recalled the importance of the elected house of people saying that the parliament building was the symbol of democracy as all institutions, after Almighty Allah, derive power from parliament.

He said the existing assembly building was a historical monument. The need for having its new block was prompted by the increasing strength of its elected members, which resulted in congestion of the seating arrangement.

He said the government’s aim in building its new block was to equip the new assembly hall with the latest technology so that it could serve the needs of the parliamentarians in the next 50 years.

He said the Punjab Assembly had had its new building which was already functional and our efforts were to complete the building at the earliest so that if the present elected house could not use it, the next assembly could make it functional.

He said the present assembly was the first assembly which was about to complete its full tenure. The chief minister expressed the hope that President Gen Pervez Musharraf would get himself re-elected from the sitting assemblies, followed by holding of a free and fair election.

He said the government had shown magnanimity by including the names of opposition members on the plaque. But the opposition members, despite that invitations had been sent to them, did not turn up, which was against the past practice when opposition members used to attend all functions organised by the government.

Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah said that in the 21st century the world had become a global village as such if democracy had to succeed members of the elected house would have to be empowered.

They would have to be equipped with all modern tools of knowledge and technology by extending them all required facilities for their empowerment so that they could deliver, he added.

Earlier, presenting the welcome address Senior Minister Syed Sardar Ahmad recalled the brief history of the existing building of the assembly, which was built in 1942 when its members’ strength was 62. But now it had 168 members, whose seating arrangement had made the hall insufficient for the members’ movement, he said.