LAHORE: PPP Punjab has expressed its solidarity with the Punjab University teachers who are protesting against the Punjab Government’s onslaught to grab Punjab University land for the Metro Train project, said Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo in a statement issued from the Party Secretariat here Wednesday. The Metro Bus Project has already buried the archeological grandeur of Lahore under concrete and now the government is after most prestigious and old center of academic excellence, Punjab University, he added.
He warned that if the government did not stop its despicable pursuit the PPP would practically join the University teachers in their struggle and agitate the issue at all forums unabatedly till the government decided to abandon the plan of encroaching on the University land.
He said that these were the manifestations of this government as how much importance it gave to the education sector. Its leadership committed to allocate 4% of the GDP for education and its allocations of 1.67% spoke volumes of the shameful level of commitment of the PML (N) government.
He maintained that the Metro Train project was the physical manifestation of the skewed up priorities of this government when hepatitis had been spreading in the province at an epidemic proportion due to the lack of clean drinking water to the people.
He added that most of the government schools, hospitals and basic health units were without basic facilities and the findings of the various research organizations gave credence to the pathetic state of affairs there.
He further said that Punjab Chief Minister’s whole focus was Lahore at the expense of the rest of the province and regional disparities were fueling the economic deprivation among the people of the province. The position of the inter-city road networks and the farm to market roads would bear out the fact of criminal negligence of the Punjab government, he added.
INP
