Opposition alliance says that when the protest enters its last stage central leaders of the parties will also join in. PHOTO: NNI
The opposition alliance has asked the provincial government to revise the plan for the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project in a week’s time.
Among other concerns, the alliance has demanded that tunnel boring technology should be used for construction of the train track. It has also asked that experts be asked to brief the Punjab Assembly on the project.
Addressing the press following a meeting on Monday, Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed said that an in-camera session be held with experts in this regard. “The government is hiding details from us. We will not let them destroy Lahore under our watch,” he said.
The alliance leaders also said that the central leaders of their parties would soon join their protest against the project. Rasheed said that Imran Khan, Bilawal Bhutto and Chauhdry Shujaat Hussain would lead the protest once it entered its last stage.
Rasheed announced that on Tuesday (today) the opposition alliance would hold a march from the GPO Chowk to the Chief Minister’s Secretariat to seek revisions in the project plan. “We are asking the government to address our concerns in a week’s time,” he said.
Rasheed condemned the government for removing the opposition alliance’s protest camps along the OLMT route. He said the camps set up at Chauburji Chowk and the Parachute Colony were forcibly removed by the police on Sunday. “We condemn this behaviour of the government. This is undemocratic,” he said.
Jamaat-i-Islami Lahore amir Zikrullah Mujahid said the government was not taking public grievances over the project very seriously. “The project was launched without taking anyone into confidence about it,” he said.
Lahore Pakistan Peoples Party president Samina Ghurki that the opposition alliance was intact and added that her party had launched an inquiry into the expulsion of the alliance leaders including Rasheed from a PPP demonstration on Sunday.
Representatives of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek were also present at the meeting.
Though no representative of the Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen attended the meeting on Monday, the alliance is expecting that the party will join its protest on Tuesday.
Several civil society groups are also expected to also join the protest under the banner #RastaBadlo.
Separately, PPP central Pumjab president Mian Manzoor Wattoo addressed a press conference where he said that his party would take part in the opposition’s protest on Tuesday.
On Sunday, PTI chairman Imran Khan had announced on the social media that he would soon join the affected people in their protest against the Orange Line project.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 2nd, 2016.
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