Four years and Rs91m later, swimming pool still incomplete

Sports ministry project was scheduled for completion in 2022

RAWALPINDI:

Four years after the start of the project and two years after the intended deadline for completion, the first swimming pool intended for swimmers in the Rawalpindi division remains incomplete.

The project management unit of the Punjab Sports Ministry started the construction of a swimming pool in the Rawalpindi division in 2020. The cost of the project at that time was said to be Rs98.2 million. It was scheduled to be completed in two years by December 2022.

Of the amount, Rs92.4 million has already been released of which Rs91 million has been spent on the project.

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In the first year, reports said that 90 per cent of the work was completed. Meanwhile, wiring and roof construction, including the transformer, were part of the project that was pending.

It must be added that the roof was not part of the project proposal. It more than doubled the cost of the project from Rs98.2 million to Rs204.9 million.

Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, the former interior minister who also won the National Assembly seat from Rawalpindi, initiated the project that included the construction of a hostel for swimmers. His nephew, Sheikh Rashid Shafiq, who is also a member of the National Assembly (MNA) from Rawalpindi, provided the money under the funding available to MNAs.

After the ouster of the PTI government in 2022, the funds were frozen and payment of the remaining funds was stopped.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2023.