ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) spent a lot of money on building two public places called F-9 Citizen Club and G-10 Ladies Club But even after a long time and lots of money, these places are still not ready for people to use
The building work for both clubs began 16 years ago and some parts were finished about 10 years ago. However, they’re not fully working yet.
The F-9 Citizen Club, now called Gandhara Heritage Culture and Convention Centre, has things like restaurants, a pool, a gym, a lobby, an aerobic area, and a fitness center.
It covers a big area of 22 acres with a building size of 265,000 square feet. Building started in 2008, but in 2010, the Supreme Court said it couldn’t be used as a club. In 2018-19, the CDA finished the remaining work.
Last month, the CDA asked the interior ministry to make a committee to manage the citizen club.
The ladies club’s building has been empty for a long time. Building started in 2007 and stopped in 2010 after finishing some parts. Since then, nothing has been done to finish it and make it usable.
A CDA official said they’re trying to make these buildings work soon. They finished building the F-9 Citizen Club a while ago and can use it as a club now.
But for the G-10 ladies club, only the main building structure is finished. The CDA needs to spend more money to finish about 100,000 square feet of the building.
The officer said they’ll focus on making the F-9 club work first and then deal with the G-10 ladies club later.
In March, the CDA decided to let people become members of the F-9 Citizen Club. They planned to give the first 99 memberships through an auction, but not much happened after that.
They also wanted to change the G-10 Ladies Club into Islamabad Gymkhana. They were going to give the first 99 memberships through an auction too. But after deciding this in a meeting, not much happened after that, according to sources.
In that meeting, the board also chose a CDA member as the person in charge of the Gandhara Club/Citizen Club. They made a four-person committee to look into issues at Islamabad Gymkhana.
