Construction work on a memorial for Pakistan's founding leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah has been stalled due to lack of resources as the country marked the birth anniversary of Quaid-i-Azam, a news report has said.
The renovation work on the memorial at the Wazir Mansion in southern Sindh province's Karachi district, the birthplace of Jinnah, has been stopped since July 2008. It could not be resumed as the required funds have not reached the project officials, according to the Dawn news, which quoted sources as saying.
There was no plan to open the memorial to the public as Pakistan marked birth anniversary of Quaid-i-Azam on December 25, the report said.
"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," the Dawn news said.
Sources said the federal archaeology department was implementing a six-year Rs 25 million restoration and renovation project. A major chunk of the funds had been spent and work worth around Rs3 million remained outstanding.
The project had been hit by snags for a long time with the major hurdle coming in mid-2007 when a gallery was damaged and a portion of it collapsed when chiselling work was being carried out, the report said.
Even though the federal government had released funds to the archaeology department after the media highlighted the issue, the funds have not reached Karachi due "to lack of communication, misunderstanding" between the department’s head office in Islamabad and its project officers in the city, sources said.
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