KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Auqaf Syed Riaz Hussain Shah Shirazi and Chief Administrator Auqaf Sindh, Hyderabad, Mukhtar Hussain Abro have assured that grievances and hurdles affecting the government-funded construction of the shrine of Bibi Maham, popularly known as Masooma-e-Sindh, at Agham Kot, will be addressed within a week.

The assurance came during an important meeting of the Zaireen Khidmat Committee Agham Kot, held in Karachi in special collaboration with the Karachi Editors Club (KEC). During the meeting, committee member Brigadier (Retd) Syed Karrar Hussain Abidi contacted the provincial minister and the Chief Administrator Auqaf by telephone and briefed them in detail about the prevailing situation, prolonged delays and difficulties affecting the construction project. Both officials heard the concerns and assured that the outstanding issues and obstacles would be addressed within a week.

The meeting, chaired by Syed Manzar Naqvi of the Zaireen Khidmat Committee Agham Kot, expressed serious concern over the unusually prolonged delay in completion of the shrine, the extremely slow pace of work and alleged negligence on the part of the concerned authorities and contractor. Participants also discussed key issues relating to the project and formulated a future course of action.

The participants observed that the project had repeatedly faced delays on various grounds, including technical issues, revision of government construction rates and administrative complications, resulting in its completion being unnecessarily prolonged.

The meeting noted that the Zaireen Khidmat Committee and various organisations and associations representing Azadars across Sindh had repeatedly highlighted the slow pace of construction and alleged negligence by the Auqaf Department, government contractor and other concerned parties.

According to the participants, whenever these concerns were raised or protests were held, assurances were given that the obstacles would immediately be removed and construction expedited. However, they alleged that once the protests subsided, the project again slipped into a state of inactivity.

The participants said that during the recent period, three to four assurances had been given to accelerate construction and complete certain important stages before Ayyam-e-Aza, but the promised work remained incomplete even after the conclusion of the mourning period.

The meeting was informed that during the past 15 to 20 days, only three labourers had been working at the construction site, with work progressing extremely slowly on the filling of just one column. Participants said the situation raised serious questions about the effectiveness of the government departments and committees responsible for monitoring the project and maintaining checks and balances.

Concern was also expressed that temporary assurances, rather than lasting solutions, had repeatedly been offered whenever public concerns or protests emerged over the construction delays. Participants maintained that the pace of work slowed again after such protests ended, causing growing concern among Zaireen and related organisations.

The meeting was attended by Brigadier (Retd) Syed Karrar Hussain Abidi, senior journalists Nazir Leghari, Mubasher Mir and Syed Kamal Amrohi, diplomat Hassan Habib, Syed Shabbar Naqvi, Akif Ashar, Ali Zaib, Ahmed Malik and others.

Through a Zoom conference, Zawar Abdul Sattar Dars from Hyderabad, Ghulam Haider Leghari from Agham Kot, Advocate Dr Mir Ejaz Ali Talpur from Mirpurkhas and Mir Imdad Ali Talpur from Tando Jam, along with other participants, also joined the meeting, expressed their concerns and presented constructive suggestions.

The meeting strongly criticised the alleged unnecessary prolonging of construction work by the government contractor and called upon the concerned authorities to translate their one-week assurance into concrete action.

Participants demanded an immediate acceleration of construction, removal of all outstanding hurdles and effective government supervision to ensure that the shrine of Bibi Maham, Masooma-e-Sindh, is completed at the earliest without further delay.