The city managers have finally admitted that an agreement with a non-government organisation (NGO) on Arts and Crafts Village some seven years back was indeed a ‘mistake’ and decided to review it.
CDA Chairman Engineer Farkhand Iqbal, in meeting of CDA officials and representatives of the NGO, the Indus Heritage Trust (IHT), recently, gave a nod for revisiting the controversial deal by rectifying flaws in the agreement inked during the tenure of Kamran Lashari in 2005.
The minutes of the meeting, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, reveals that “the [CDA chairman] remarked that the entire process concerning IHT/Arts and Crafts Village needs to be revisited/ redesigned as the same is not fulfilling the purpose for which it was made.”
The CDA chief also directed all stakeholders to go for the best possible solution so that the project becomes a trendsetter and is replicated by other cities. “The Arts and Crafts Village management agreed to the [chairman’s] proposal and it was decided that flaws in the agreement should be rectified,” according to the minutes of the meeting.
The chairman pointed out that the delay has caused embarrassment to all stakeholders, with four deadlines already lapsed, and the completion of the village nowhere in sight.
IHT officials also briefed the meeting and said that the village was not operational due to delays in civil works, legal impediments, and hurdles created by the former operation manager of the village. The minutes also reveal a request for a third party audit to identify irregularities committed by the former operations manager.
When approached, the former operations manager Sharek Khan refused to comment, saying, “My case is with the competent authority and I am subordinate to an official decision/ verdict.” However, a CDA official privy to the developments said that IHT wants to remove Khan, who was appointed by CDA Board, from his office, because he shut the doors of the village after receiving directions from the civic agency’s legal department and two CDA members for the implementation of a court order.
IHT Chairperson Siddiqa Malik, when contacted, told The Express Tribune that the issue would be settled soon and we will make the village operational. “Poor artisans will hear good news soon”, she added. She shot down the perception that IHT was established after the advertisement for allotment of the project, saying that IHT was not registered on time due to negligence by the relevant officials. “IHT wants to run the village voluntarily… we were working in the name ‘Phulkari’ before creating IHT for the uplift of the arts and crafts sector,” she added.
The spokesperson for the civic agency said that the new chairman wanted to run the authorities affairs in accordance with the law, which is why this agreement is being revisited to remove the flaws in it.
Marred by controversy since its soft opening, the village was not made fully operational. At present, various agencies are investigating anomalies in the project. Lashari’s successors, Tariq Mahmood and Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, did not take much interest in making the village operational, due to which the cost of the project escalated far beyond the original estimates.
The village was built near Shakarparian on 2.3 acres of prime land to provide a platform to poor craftsmen to take part in exhibitions and display their works.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 16th, 2012.
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