Home > History & Culture > Historical Places > Quaid’s birthplace remains inaccessible
 KARACHI: Owing to the lethargic and careless attitude of government officials, the Wazir Mansion, the birthplace of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, will not be opened to the public on Friday, it has been learnt.
According to sources, the required funds have not yet reached the project officials. Hence the renovation work that has been stopped since July 2008 could not be resumed.
And the birthplace of Mr Jinnah will remain closed to the public on his birth anniversary, being celebrated on Friday.
The sources said the federal archaeology department was implementing a six-year Rs25m restoration and renovation project. A major chunk of the funds had been spent and work worth around Rs3m was outstanding.
The project had been hit by snags for a long time with the major hurdle coming when during mid-2007 a gallery was damaged and a portion of it collapsed when chiseling work was being carried out by workers.
The department in its attempt to protect its officials said the galleries had to be replaced, though it was not mentioned in the project document, so they had both the galleries demolished.
A committee, to recommend the design of the galleries, was set up and it came up with a recommendation that the grills — after being cleared of rust, etc — would remain the same and only the concrete floor would be replaced with wooden.
Not a single rupee from the remaining funding of Rs3m was allocated for the project during the financial year 2008-09. However, Rs3m had been allocated for the project during the current financial year, almost half of which has also passed.
The sources said that after the issue was highlighted by the media in September, the federal government immediately released the funds to the archaeology department.
However, despite the lapse of over three months the funds have not reached Karachi from Islamabad owing to lack of communication, misunderstanding, changes in financial rules, etc. between the department’s head office in Islamabad and its project officers in the city.
The work for the birthplace of the Quaid remains incomplete and inaccessible to the public.
The sources said that other irregularities in the project implementation were that the air conditioning and other expensive electrical equipment had been purchased years ago during the initial stages of the project and the warranty, etc, of all such equipment had already expired. |
