Sindh Secretariat Complex remains unaccounted for

As work stays suspended on designated building, govt continues to pay millions in rent for temporary office spaces

KARACHI: The halting of work on the mega-project for the construction of Sindh Secretariat Complex has caused an acute shortage of offices for the provincial government. In the absence of an official building, various government departments have been left to operate out of rented office spaces in the city, which continue to cost the government millions in rent every month.

Currently, over two dozen departments and autonomous bodies of the provincial government have offices in rented buildings across various areas of the provincial capital, including upscale localities like Clifton, PECHS and Defence Housing Authority. According to an estimate, the government has to bear an annual expenditure of over Rs250 million paying for these rented spaces, the majority of which are located in South district.

Several such provincial government offices are scattered across II Chundrigar Road, Sarwar Shaheed Road, PIDX-Shaheen Complex Road, Shafi Court near Hotel Metropole and the surrounding areas. Meanwhile, Gorakh Hill Development Authority, part of the Sindh government, has recently acquired another office in Clifton.

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Other government bodies that have offices in rented buildings include the anti-corruption, culture and tourism, industries and commerce, Auqaf, school education and literacy, labour and excise, taxation and narcotics control departments as well as the Sindh Food Authority, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Housing Cell, Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate, Sindh Basic Education Programme, Sindh Education Foundation, Sindh Coal Authority, Sindh Coal and Energy Board among others.

Some of the government offices that were razed for the construction of Sindh Secretariat Number 7 in 2014 were asked to obtain temporary offices in the vicinity. As per plan, the displaced offices were to be accommodated after partial construction of Secretariat Number 7. The project also included the construction of some 10 buildings in two parts: Secretariat Number 7 and Secretariat Number 8.  Two out of the 10 buildings are planned to have ground-plus-15 floors each, while the remaining eight will have ground-plus-five floors. The site for the two secretariats is located at both sides of the Sindh High Court.

The plan also includes other facilities such as parking for over 1,000 vehicles, water treatment plants, auditoriums, conference halls, libraries, fire protection systems and electric sub-stations. According to the plan, all Sindh government offices currently operating out of rented spaces were to be shifted to these buildings upon completion of the Sindh Secretariat Complex.

The total cost of the project was estimated to be around Rs9.4 billion. The formal approval for the project was given as early as December 2012 and construction for Secretariat Number 7 began two years later, in 2014. Both parts of the project were scheduled to be completed by the financial year 2015-16.

However, the government has been unable to start work on Secretariat Number 8, while the work which began at Secretariat Number 7 too has been halted for the past three years, with only 30 per cent of progress to show to date.

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While speaking to The Express Tribune, Shakeel Memon, the spokesperson for Sindh chief minister’s adviser on works and services, admitted that the government has been wasting millions in rent every month due to the project’s delay. “The government has been unable to start work on the second part of the project due to the lack of funds, for which the federal government is to blame,” said Memon. “The federal government has not released Rs100 billion to the provincial government, due on account of the National Finance Commission share,” he added.

According to the project director, Ghulam Shabir Depar, work on Secretariat Number 7 has been at a standstill for the last three years due to litigation. “A contractor had filed a petition in Sindh High Court, which has caused the delay and the increased cost of the project will be estimated once work resumes,” he claimed.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2020.