- Misplaced priorities leave 12-storey New Secretariat building incomplete despite lapse of eight years
- Govt continues to pay millions of rupees as rent for buildings hired to hold offices for federal ministries while Senator Dar remains too busy to allocate floors in new building
While billions of rupees are being spent in lieu of rent for buildings hired for various ministries and their attached departments, a project of a 12-storey state-of-the-art building designed on modern lines with a capacity to house several ministries is laying incomplete for the past eight years.
The New Secretariat Block, renamed as Kohsar Block, was conceived and planned by former prime minister Shaukat Aziz. The project was launched in 2007 and had to be completed within three years. However, the building still is under construction due to non-provision of funds after a lapse of five years from its deadline, 2010.
For the project, the government seems all set to miss another deadline set by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal who recently directed to operationalise the building by March 23. A revised PC-I of the project has to be submitted for approval while the allocation of floors to various ministries is yet to be made.
The requests of over a dozen ministries are pending with Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar for allocation of rooms or floors at the new secretariat but the minister, who according to a source in the Finance Ministry, chairs around 45 government committees, is “too busy to take a decision”.
While Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has assured that accommodation would be provided to the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) and separate offices would be provided to allow functioning of Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee (IPCC) as well as the Council of Common Interest (CCI) Secretariat, none of these have been accommodated.
“Due to the same reason, neither the IPCC meeting could be held nor could a better coordination among provinces be ensured. All the four chief ministers want a proper office to hold meetings. However, no building is available for the purpose,” an official at the IPC Ministry told Pakistan Today.
“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had formed a committee, headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, to allocate the floors to various ministries. However, Dar has not yet allocated the floors to the ministries. Senator Dar, who chairs the Committee on Allotments in New Secretariat Block, has no time to decide the allocation,” a source in the Planning Commission told Pakistan Today.
“Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, at a recent meeting, directed the Housing Ministry’s officials to complete the construction work over the building by March so that it could be inaugurated on March 23. However, the construction work can be completed once the floors are allocated to ministries and the PWD gives a final approval by the relevant ministers to arrange cabins and partitions according to the approved plan,” the source added.
An official source in the PWD Department of the Ministry of Housing and Works said that due to the ignorance by the previous and incumbent governments, the building still awaits adequate funds for completion. Moreover, some court cases are not been pleaded by the government properly in this regard, he added.
“The structure of the building is ready for years now. But the work still is continuing on installing lifts and air conditioners with other renovation-related issues still to be completed. These could only be done once the allocation of the floors is made to ministries,” the source said.
The source added that since the building has been designed on modern corporate trends and it was economical in terms of space, aimed at enhancing efficiency and ensuring better coordination between various departments and ministries, the approval for designing cabins for the staff is yet to be made under a coherent plan.
The source added that the federal government has to pay millions of rupees every month as rent for the buildings hired for different departments functioning in rented buildings, the new block was not being allocated to the ministries.
The source said that the cost of the project had been set at Rs 3.476 billion. “By June 2014, Rs 3.348 billion had been released. However, in PSDP 2014-15, only Rs 500 million had been approved. A revised PC-I has also to be submitted for approval which reflects that the building may not be operational by March 23 as per the direction of Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal,” the official added.
The New Secretariat Block is a spacious building under construction with 700,000 sq feet covered area. In April 2014, Senator Dar had claimed that the New Secretariat building will be completed in three to four months and will accommodate the federal government ministries and offices which are currently renting their offices.
The minister was informed that the government was spending annual rent of Rs 240 million. However, a source in the PWD said that the government was paying Rs 500 million every month for the rent of these buildings.
