The Auditor General of Pakistan’s report highlights that despite a decade passing, no progress has been made on the Knowledge Park project initiated by former Punjab Chief Minister and current Prime Minster Shehbaz Sharif in Lahore.
In response, the Punjab government has dissolved the Knowledge Park Company and rebranded the project as “Nawaz Sharif IT City,” entrusting its completion to the Central Business District (CBD) under Maryam Nawaz’s leadership. CBD spokesperson Rizwan Shah confirmed that practical efforts on the NS IT City project have commenced, with the first block of 29 plots already sold to various sector-related companies.
Mian Marghoob Ahmad, Vice Chairman of the Lahore Development Authority, recounted that the Shehbaz Sharif administration had launched several public interest initiatives, including Knowledge Park, in 2014. These projects, however, faced substantial setbacks due to opposition from the NAB and PTI governments, leading to halted progress on other significant initiatives such as the Orange Line, Clean Water Company, and PKLI.
The Auditor General’s report details the initial plans for Knowledge Park, which was established in 2014 to attract overseas educational institutions to Lahore. The vision was to develop campuses for these institutions across 802 acres on Bedian Road. Despite these plans, no practical development took place.
In 2014, the Punjab government projected that the Lahore Knowledge Park would generate over 40,000 jobs and produce 11,200 Ph.D. scholars by 2040, with an estimated project cost of one billion dollars. The Knowledge Park Company had anticipated that the project would yield 5.9 trillion in government revenue over 25 years, including 253 billion rupees for project workers and 178 billion in corporate taxes.
