Sindh Secretariat Complex remains unaccounted for.

KARACHI -- The halting of work on the mega-project for the construction of Sindh Secretariat Complex has caused an acute shortage of offices for the provincial government. In the absence of an official building, various government departments have been left to operate out of rented office spaces in the city, which continue to cost the government millions in rent every month.

Currently, over two dozen departments and autonomous bodies of the provincial government have offices in rented buildings across various areas of the provincial capital, including upscale localities like Clifton, PECHS and Defence Housing Authority. According to an estimate, the government has to bear an annual expenditure of over Rs250 million paying for these rented spaces, the majority of which are located in South district.

Several such provincial government offices are scattered across II Chundrigar Road, Sarwar Shaheed Road, PIDX-Shaheen Complex Road, Shafi Court near Hotel Metropole and the surrounding areas. Meanwhile, Gorakh Hill Development Authority, part of the Sindh government, has recently acquired another office in Clifton.

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Other government bodies that have offices in rented buildings include the anti-corruption, culture and tourism, industries and commerce, Auqaf, school education and literacy, labour and excise, taxation and narcotics control departments as well as the Sindh Food Authority, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Housing Cell, Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate, Sindh Basic Education Programme, Sindh Education Foundation, Sindh Coal Authority, Sindh Coal and Energy Board among others.

Some of the government offices that were razed for the construction of Sindh Secretariat Number 7 in 2014 were asked to obtain temporary offices in the vicinity. As per plan, the displaced offices were to be accommodated after partial construction of Secretariat Number 7. The project also included the construction of some 10 buildings in two parts: Secretariat Number 7 and Secretariat Number 8. Two out of the 10 buildings are planned to have ground-plus-15 floors each, while the remaining eight will have ground-plus-five floors. The site for the two secretariats is located at both...