A 7-star hotel in Islamabad?

Posted on September 1, 2006
Filed Under >Bilal Zuberi, Economy & Development
71 Comments
Total Views: 53721

Bilal Zuberi

I just read this in the news. Daily Times has reported the inauguration of The Centaurus, Pakistan’s first seven-star hotel project, in Islamabad.

I am left wondering what are these people thinking? Can Pakistan afford, and sustain, a 7-star hotel? Do we really need one? And what is a 7-star hotel, after all? We can barely maintain a decent 2 or 3 star hotel in our major cities. Are we now competing with Dubai for architectural grandiosity? And whoever came up with the name should probably look for a job in Hollywood…

ISLAMABAD: The Centaurus, Pakistan’s first seven-star hotel project, was inaugurated on Thursday. The $350 million complex is planned to have a 37-storey deluxe hotel, with two 21-storey residential towers, a 25-storey corporate office complex, and a 5-storey shopping mall. The complex will have a parking lot that would accommodate over 2,000 vehicles. The project will be completed in three years… The Pak Gulf Construction Private Limited company (PGCL) and Messrs Atkins engineering company – the constructors of Dubai’s renowned Burj Al Arab – are executing the project. Saudi Arabian Al-Tamimi Group and the Sardar Group of Companies are making the investment….

President General Pervez Musharraf on Thursday said it was “the right time to invest in Pakistan� because of the country’s positive economic policies of de-regulation, liberalisation and privatisation coupled with a liberal foreign exchange regimen. “We have opened all sectors of the economy for investment and the scourge of red-tapism and bureaucratic delays are being done away with,� said the president at the foundation-laying ceremony of The Centaurus.

71 responses to “A 7-star hotel in Islamabad?”

  1. Asif Rehman Babar says:

    As construction activities boost your economy so I think its a good step for the economy of Pakistan, moreover people will get employment and around 40 other industries would flourish which are related directly or indirectly with the construction industry of Pakistan.

  2. Kruman says:

    Atleast this is private money. The most egregious wastage of public money is the new GHQ in Islamabad. I hope the the SC or the new parliament will put a stop to the construtction of the new GHQ on 2500 acres of land (Pentagon in comparison is built on 250 acres).

  3. Shahid says:

    wow! all this for one silly hotel? I live in Sanfrancisco and I dont give another turn to a
    high rise that have I just passed. First educate common people , teach them manners, teach them how to make a line and wait for their turn.I get so frustrated everytime I visit karachi and cannot wait to get out.Think of these travellers who would come and spent so much money and time to visit. Would they ever come back?

  4. DR.MANSOUR ALI says:

    What’s wrong in Pakistan having a 7 star hotel.
    why can’t we Pakistanis be ever proud of something unique, why can’t we look forward into future and stop criticising each other.
    I felt really proud that a mega million project is under construction and that Pakistan would be on the world map atleast for some good reason rather that being on the websites , news rounds and world media for all the bad reasons that its citizens indulge or get involved in.
    Building such a big hotel would definitely have great impact on our tourism and our economy.
    We want people to see our country to come to us and to visit us rather than shun our pakland and go sumwhere else.
    Pakistan is a beautiful country gifted with all the essential euipments and elements which a country needs to boast of, the only other thing it needs is due respect and sense of pride, personal integrity and responsibility from within its own people but alas, we pakistanis have lost that ages ago.
    Let this project complete peacefully and let us celebrate the march of pakistan and pakistanis towards sustainable economic growth in the future INSHALLAH. Let this be the first step towards it.
    Dr.M.N.Ali

  5. alamzeb says:

    alamzeb@thecentaurus.com

    Hi all, I wonder why you people are soooo narrow minded and leg puller, rather than appreciating something, you always try to discourage people, you are the one, who dont do something, but if some one does, you just start barking negativelly to satisify yourself, that I am not doing something, I am fine. What the hell do you know about the Muslim History?? look at our civilisation, it was we who taught the world about Civilisation, look at our historly in Spain, we were the best architects, look in Uthman Empire, the west learnt Fort Building from us in The Crusades, we taught the world Calculus, which is the the mother of construction and architect now a days.

    why are you people in Inferiority complex??? why??? what can’t we have 7 star hotel in Islamabad??? go to UK and look at the situation of London Security, look at the situation of world famous cities, we are much better than them. There are very influential people in Pakistan, but these Polititians, the Disgraced Pakistan Army of 1971, and people like these who wrote this article is busy in leg pulling.

    Open up your minds and grow up, just fine WHO YOU ARE, YOU ARE MUSLIMS, this world is made for us, make it beautiful and do something for your nation, because YOU GOT ONE LIFE, dont waste it in bullshits, which I have seen above..

    I am not saying because I am the part of this Project, I am saying because luckily I got Spirtual leaders in my college days, which showed me what Inferiority complex is and what we are.

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