ISLAMABAD: Teachers and students of various schools and colleges in Rawalpindi and Islamabad are being told by the local authorities to attend the impending opening ceremony of the Islamabad Metro bus project, it has been learnt. The reported high profile opening ceremony of the 50 billion project is expected to take place in the coming weeks and high ups of the ruling party are expected to attend the ceremony.
Public and politic figures have expressed concern and have condemned the local authorities for forcing the teachers to attend the opening ceremony of the project. Pakistan Tehreek Insaf’s Fayyaz Ul Hassan Chohan said that forcing students and teachers to attend such ceremonies purely to swell the attendance figure is condemnable in the strongest possible terms. He added that the ruling Government is known to resort to such acts even when conducting rallies. He also added that the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf is working to put an end to this VIP culture where students and teachers are forced to clap in front of political figures.
Pakistan Awami Tehreek’s Ibrar Raza also condemned the reported incident of teachers being forced to attend the ceremony and said that it is due to such practices that the public is fed up of politicians. Metro bus project chairman Hanif Abbasi could not be contacted to get his point of view.
Similar treatment was also witnessed last year when students of the Punjab University in Lahore were told to attend the anthem singing ceremony. The students were also warned that if they fail to attend the anthem singing ceremony they will lose the laptops they were entitled to under the laptop scheme.