Karachi Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab held a groundbreaking ceremony of a bowling arena at the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Sports Complex on Saturday.
Speaking to the media at the ceremony, he said that the assets of the KMC were destroyed under a well-planned conspiracy so that their occupants earned money and the KMC got nothing.
“Now we will not allow anyone to do this, the bowling arena in KMC Sports Complex was closed for years, and we decided that this facility should be opened to the citizens in collaboration with the private sector,” he said, adding that the KMC had started the work of building a bowling arena for Rs160 million, which would be run in partnership with the private sector.
The KMC, he said, was providing this facility to the citizens at a lower cost than the market, and their goal was to activate and improve all the parks and sports centres of the corporation.
On this occasion, Special Representative of Mayor for Political Affairs Karamullah Waqasi, Deputy Parliamentary Leader Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in City Council Dil Muhammad, Senior Director Culture and Sports Saif Abbas Hassani, Chief Executive Virtual Axis Khawaja Ahmed Mustaqeem and other officers were also present.
Wahab said that he believed in the right to political protest, but what those who surrounded the Sindh Assembly wanted to prove by making the people suffer, he said, adding that the protesters were those who had been rejected by the people.
He said that hopefully in the future these people would act consciously, as many parties in Karachi were stakeholders. “If we want to solve the problems of the citizens, we all have to work together.” If problems were solved by shouting and protesting, he said, the Jamaat-e-Islami’s Hafiz Naeem would have become the secretary general of the United Nations and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Haleem Adil Sheikh of the OIC.
The mayor said that there are old memories associated with KMC Sports Complex; once it was a very vibrant place, but unfortunately, among other things, it had also gone towards deterioration. “I am happy that the KMC under the PPP is trying to make whatever assets and properties it has available to the citizens,” he said.
He said that it takes six months to build the bowling arena, but they would make it functional in four months so that this facility becomes available to the citizens before the summer holidays in June.
The mayor said that four machines have come for the bowling arena, and two more machines will come soon. The bowling arena would be of six lanes, and for the first time in Pakistan, the KMC had introduced the bowling arena and now it is also being revived by KMC. The machines of that time were manual but now automatic machines were being installed, he said, adding that international-level competitions would also be held there.
Pakistan’s current world ranking in the game of bowling is 77, and hopefully it would improve with the efforts of the youth, he remarked.
The game of bowling is gaining popularity among the youth, and this initiative of the KMC, he said, would benefit them, and the process of activating and improving various sports facilities for the citizens would continue.
Wahab also visited other parts of the Sports Complex on this occasion and directed the officials to improve them.