Metropolitan Club likely to be new NCA campus at F-9 Park
Aftab Ahmed
The PTI Government is considering housing a new campus of the National College of Arts (NCA) at the Metropolitan Club Building.
The majority of the Cabinet members supported establishing the NCA campus in Islamabad without compromising the NCA Rawalpindi quality.
The members of the Cabinet expressed a mixed response to the proposal. At the same time, they voted to put the building in proper use. It also argued establishing an educational institute in the park may lead to further problems.
https://newztodays.com/pakistani-app-worthywalk-among-ten-google-developer-student-club-challenge-winners/
However, its location in the park remained under debate. The ministry suggested forming a ministers committee to consider the various options for building the building and presenting a report before the cabinet.
The Cabinet considered the various options of the Ministry for proper utilization of the Metropolitan Club building. It constituted a committee of Cabinet members and submitted proposals before the cabinet in the next meeting.
The committee includes Shafqat Mehmood, Ijaz Ahmed Shah, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Dr Shireen M Mazari, Asad Umar, Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar and Dr Babar Awan.
The Federal Education & Professional Training Division apprised the Cabinet that the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore, was the leading art institution in the region, serving as an apt symbol of Pakistan’s creative potential.
It was established through the NCA ordinance 1985 and produced eminent artists, designers, and architects. The legislation also prepared to make it into a university and is likely to be passed by the parliament soon.
Meanwhile, as a national institution working under the Federal Government, it had established sub-campuses in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. But there were small entities only housing a few departments.
Ministry of Education felt for a long to establish a proper campus for NCA in Islamabad after merging the existing small setups in twin cities. It also realized to offers the disciplines in a larger NCA campus in Islamabad more than those in Lahore. The ministry considered include film and performing arts.
This would make the NCA Islamabad into a comprehensive art and culture institution and enhance the civic life of the capital besides offering a large bouquet of courses to students. The only problem was that such an institution required adequate land. But this was fairly scarce in the capital and huge investment in infrastructure as well.
For many years, the Ministry of Education and NCA had been looking for appropriate land to build a suitable campus. While this process was going on, the Ministry’ came to know that a huge and modern building containing most of the features for an art and culture institution stands in the heart of the Capital at F-9 Park.
Its brief history is that government allocates 22 acres of land out of the park to establish a club. Renewed architect-designed its infrastructure and government built with a cost of nearly Rs 2 billion. It covers 265000 sq feet with all modern facilities such as large halls, recreation rooms, many suites plus swimming pools, tennis courts and more.
READ Sana Javed signed Humayun Saed’s next film
The entire building was centrally air-conditioned, and the work on its various aspects was complete. A petitioner had challenged the matter of “the establishment of Metropolitan Club” in the Supreme Court that issued an order on June 5, 2010, in a Human Right Case. It directed to use “the citizen’s club building/metropolitan club building with other facilities for a project of public welfare.” Since then, the place is lying vacant.
The Ministry of Interior had not supported the proposal and stated the government built a citizens club building in F-9 Park for indoor games/sports activities. The Ministry of Interior further stated that the building was not suitable for any educational institution as the building layout did not have provisions for classrooms and other educational requirements. Also, the land used in F-9 Park does not allow for the establishment of an educational institution.
The Ministry consulted the architect Nayyar Ali Dada and realized building is highly suitable for fulfilling the requirements of educational activities of all the departments of NCA along with the expansion of its scope in arts and culture.
The building could also support the Artist in Residence Program. The aforementioned building’s aforementioned usage will be in line with the Supreme Court’s directions and land-use rules of CDA. It was, therefore, requested that the building, in principle, may be handed over to the Ministry of Federal Education & Professional Training after CDA had completed its residual work.
Given above, the concerned ministry sought approval of the Cabinet to transfer administrative control of the building to the Ministry of Federal Education. As the Ministry does not hold the budget to maintain the building, the completion, maintenance, and repair of the building may remain with CDA till the institute was operational and able to bear its expenses.
