Government demands adding duress to citizens
LAHORE: As the Orange Line Train project is unlikely to be finished anytime soon, with the passage of time the managerial issues have only added up to the already existing plethora of controversies that surround the project. The most recent one relates to Punjab University being asked to give a piece of land to a religious seminary because the land previously allotted to the seminary has been utilised by the Punjab government for constructing the route for the train. Now the provincial government is asking the university management for provision of space for the religious seminary.
Keeping the legal and technical aspects of the case aside, the Punjab government’s demand for a piece of land from the university management is unjustified as it could easily allot land for the same anywhere across the city. Further, the cost of the land of the university that has previously been acquired for the construction of an underpass was to be paid by the government to the university management. But the government has failed to do so till date. The current demand only adds to the distress faced by the university management.
Anam Jamal
Published in The Express Tribune, January 3rd, 2018.
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