Information ministry seeking control of Pak-China Friendship Centre

Ministry officials say the centre can help promote cultural activities.

ISLAMABAD:

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is making efforts to take control of Pakistan-China Friendship Centre, presently under the supervision of Capital Development of Authority (CDA), it has been learnt.

“There is no logic in giving a cultural centre to a civic body,” said a senior official of the information ministry. He said that cultural activities do not fall under the purview of CDA, which serves to provide civic facilities to residents of Islamabad.

He said that the centre could be used generate revenues to fund the various cultural activities conducted by the information ministry.

The official said that the information minister will soon write to the prime minister to bring the Pak-China Friendship Centre under supervision of the information ministry, as an allied department of Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA).

Sources said that some senior officials of CDA are reluctant to give up control of the centre, which includes a fully equipped auditorium with 800 seats, an exhibition centre, a conference room for 250 people and a multipurpose hall.

In the last meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting, Information Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan also expressed her reservation over giving cultural departments to different ministries. She said that since PNCA has been given to the information ministry then the Pak-China Friendship Centre should also be given to the same ministry as it is a cultural centre and has nothing to do with CDA.

The Pak-China Friendship Centre, inaugurated early this year, was a gift from the Chinese government. The Rs2.5 billion project took two years to complete and was left under the control of the Ministry of Culture.

However, after the devolution of the ministry under the 18th Amendment, the centre was handed over to CDA, Islamabad’s civic body, while other cultural department including Lok Virsa and PNCA were given to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2011.