Local government: KMC to build new hall for bigger City Council

Old house had 168 representatives, new one 268.

KARACHI: The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation is building a new hall at the Old KMC Building to accommodate what will be a much bigger City Council of 353 members after the local government elections on January 18.

“We aren’t going to touch the old building,” assured KMC spokesperson Ali Hassan Sajid. The 83-year-old yellow sandstone edifice stands regally on MA Jinnah Road and until 2001 was generally considered the seat of Karachi’s city government. Today most of the city’s work is done out of Civic Center as Karachi is run by a sole administrator and not an elected council.

But with the local government elections around the corner, the KMC realised that the existing city council hall inside the Old KMC building would not be large enough as it can only seat 255 people.

The number of union councils has gone up in Karachi from 168 to 268 because of fresh delimitation. Each union council will have nine councilors who will choose one chairman who sits in the city council. Women get a 22 per cent reserved quota or 59 seats, labourers five per cent or 13 seats and minorities five percent or 13 seats.

“We will demolish the old annexe that is behind the building,” said Sajid. The plan is to build a steel structure with a fibre roof, “sort of like what you see at Metro,” he explained, referring to the hypermarket chain off University Road. “We did a lot of surveys and brainstorming,” he added, “but there was no way we could expand the existing hall.”

When asked if a steel and fibre sheet roof building wouldn’t spoil the beauty of the heritage site, Sajid said that it wouldn’t be visible as it would be located behind.

KMC Administrator Rauf Akhtar Farooqui visited the old building on Monday and after discussing the possibilities asked the engineering department to prepare a PC-I or initial estimate for the construction of a new council hall. They have a month to do the work. “If we can’t get it done in time we will either pitch a tent in the lawn or use the Polo Ground,” said Sajid.

The Sindh government will have to approve the cost estimates as it is paying the bill. This paperwork is expected to be done by December 26.

The administrator said that the new hall should be able to take 500 people because they had to think of the future. The hall would have to also accommodate the members of the press and visitors in separate galleries.

The administrator was accompanied by the engineering director-general, Niaz Soomro, senior director of municipal services, the director of the council, the director of the naib nazim’s secretariat, the director of archives, the chief engineer for buildings among other officers.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2013.