Nayyar Ali Dada submits apology for floating idea of medical school.
For endorsing an idea of converting Citizens’ Club building at Fatima Jinnah Park into a medical university has landed a renowned architect into an embarrassing situation.
The architect has tendered an apology to the capital’s civic agency for briefing secretary to the President over the issue of establishment of a medical university at Fatima Jinnah Park or F-9 Park “without taking the CDA on board”.
The apology has been submitted in response to a show-cause notice earlier served by the city managers to Nayyar Ali Dada, seeking an explanation that under what capacity had he briefed the presidency over the issue and endorsed the idea of transforming the club’s building into a medical education institute.
Dada is the principle architect of the Rs1.3 billion Citizen Club project.
The proposal to convert the club into medical university was under consideration until recently but now the idea has been dropped, a source in the civic agency said.
In 2010, the structure of the club, over 20-acres of land, was near completion when the Supreme Court declared the facility illegal, as according to the apex court judges it would only serve the “elite of the society with a commercial perspective”, and had been built in violation of laws in the park.
The building remains abandoned since then.
Early in 2015, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University Vice-Chancellor Dr Javed Akram had suggested the idea requesting CDA to allocate the building for the varsity.
A few days ago Dr Akram told The Express Tribune that the apex court order over the issue is clear and allows the establishment of the educational institute at the building.
He quoted an excerpt from the judgment of May 13, 2010, which says, “As now a huge amount has already been spent, therefore, the CDA, with the approval of the federal government, instead of abandoning the project, may use it for any public welfare project such as a women’s university, medical or engineering college, science, technology or information technology institution.”
According to the documents available, the architect on August 5, 2015, wrote a letter to the President’s secretary and endorsed the idea.
“In response, the officials at the Presidency asked the civic agency to comment on the proposal,” said one of the CDA board members.
The board, he added, took notice of the issue on the excuse that services of Dada had been hired by CDA and under what capacity he was endorsing the idea without taking the civic agency on board.
The board in its meeting held in December 2015 decided to serve the show-cause notice to the architect.
When contacted, the CDA member engineering Shahid Sohail confirmed the development saying the issue had been resolved with a written apology submitted by Dada.
Talking to The Express Tribune Dada said it happened because of a ‘misunderstanding’. “It’s no more an issue, as I have clarified the situation to CDA,” he commented.
Dada had prepared the design of the club, which has structures including clubhouses an auditorium, conference rooms, a fitness centre, a gymnasium and an aerobic area, tennis courts, squash courts, a billiard room, a games room, swimming pools, banquet halls, restaurants, a bakery, a library, a car parking and residential rooms.
Shahid Sohail said the building was almost complete and finishing work was in progress.
“It has been decided to first complete the building, as the CDA has already spent nearly Rs1 billion over the project,” Sohail said adding the in-house buildings specifications were very high but now it had been rationalised so that the project could be completed.
For what purpose the building would be utilised, Sohail said, it was yet to be decided.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 22nd, 2016.
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