KARACHI, April 14: The project to construct a new hall adjacent to the Sindh Assembly building has entered the final stages. The consulting architect has already updated the initial plan by making provisions for the future requirements of the House, as suggested by its speaker, it is reliably learnt.
Architect Habib Fida Ali is likely to make a presentation on the plan sometime next week to the custodian of assembly building. The plan's design matches the historic building's plan, built in the 1940s.
In the updated plan, according to some sources, the seating capacity for the elected members will be 350, for diplomatic and governor's gallery will be 200, for speaker's gallery 100, for officer's gallery 50, for adviser's gallery 20, for visitors gallery 1,000, for press gallery 200, for ministers' gallery 60, for ladies gallery 100, for the deputy speaker's gallery 50 and leader of the opposition's gallery 100.
The hall will have one chamber for the leader of the House and another one for the leader of the opposition, one retiring room for the lady members, one chamber for audio and video recording, one library, one auditorium with a capacity of 250, one speaker's chamber, one deputy speaker's chamber, one cafeteria, two committee rooms and two MPAs' sitting rooms.
The speaker is determined to get the project executed within the shortest period of two years from the date the PC-1 was approved, the sources said. They added that after re-arrangement in the present assembly hall, the seating capacity was increased from 114 to 168 which has almost blocked the movement of the members even for consultation with the party leaders or the ministers sitting in some other row.
The present hall was originally conceived to accommodate 62 members when the new building was inaugurated on March 4, 1942. Therefore, the accommodation of 168 members cannot be expected without inconvenience.
Likewise, for a provision of 36 seats in the press gallery, over 300 passes are being issued nowadays and for the VIP gallery where hardly 16 ex-legislators and other VIPs can be seated, over two dozen passes are being issued.
The case of the visitors' gallery and the official gallery is no different as for the provision of 90 and 29 seats respectively, passes are being issued to more than 800 visitors and over 50 officials.
As the cost of construction and of related services had escalated too much during the last decade, the demand is likely to be made from the government for allocation of Rs100 million in the next budget for the construction of the hall with offices and chambers of the speaker, deputy speaker, secretary of the assembly and other essential staff.
In view of the increasing population in the province, the PPP government was the first one to realize in the 1990s that with the passage of time the strength of the members was bound to increase which will require either a new building or a new hall in the backyard of the premises as there no longer was room for expansion of the present hall.
Abdullah Shah, who was then the chief minister, was responsible for a "loud thinking" on the issue. When Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto was inducted as a caretaker chief minister, after the dismissal of the PPP government, he reportedly suggested that the venue of the proposed Assembly building be moved from Malir to Sehwan Sharif, Dadu.
But, due to financial difficulties it was decided that only a hall be added to the present building, with a seating capacity for 200 members. In this regard a feasibility report was also prepared, showing an estimated cost of Rs45 million.
However, before the initiation of the tender process some political developments resulted in the blocking of the entire exercise. In 1998 when some cracks appeared in the dome of the assembly building, the issue was revived and a crash programme was chalked out to carry out repairs of the historic building where the Pakistan resolution was adopted in 1942.
Later, after a change of the guard in the country, under the Legal Framework Order the strength of the assembly was increased to 168. According to a report, the repair and renovation work cost Rs55 million, that is Rs10 million over and above the original estimates for construction and furnishing of the new hall with modern gadgets.
In reply to a question the secretary of the provincial assembly, Hadi Bux Buriro, told Dawn that the new plan had been prepared in the light of suggestions made by Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah to meet the future needs of the elected house.