ISLAMABAD—Activist and nuclear physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy along with academic council members and students of Quaid-e-Azam University on Wednesday visited the site of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) seizure of university land for building the Bhara Kahu bypass, to register their protest.
Speaking on the occasion, Hoodbhoy said that this project was started in haste while using the land owned by the university. “Without negotiation with the administration, the boundary wall of the university was demolished. This bypass will divide the university into two parts”, he said.
While answering a question regarding the dubious role of the Vice Chancellor in this matter, he replied that the VC is silent due to his personal benefits. He said that Quaid-e-Azam university is the future of our generations, therefore, they will not allow it to divide into two parts.
Regarding the dire need for this bypass, he said that the traffic issue faced by people can be addressed through the construction of a flyover. “The alternate land given by the CDA is 5 km away from here in the mountains and at any cost, that land can’t be substituted for this land,” he noted.
Students and faculty members were also present at the spot and were chanting slogans against the CDA. They were holding placards inscribed with slogans of anger over the CDA like, ‘CDA landgrabber’, ‘Hands off QAU’, ‘No, No CDA underpass’, and many more.
It is important to mention here that the CDA has included 200 kanals of the university land in the Bhara Kahu bypass on Murree Road. University administration is protecting and calling this inclusion as an illegal act by the CDA and claiming that the Authority has not obtained a NOC.
On Tuesday, Islamabad High Court issued a stay order to stop the work till the submission of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report by Pak-EPA. On the other hand, the construction work for the bypass has already been started. This project was inaugurated by Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif last month and had also directed to complete it within the span of three weeks.
This is a 5 km-long road that includes a flyover as well. This road will start from Murree Road near the Quaid-e-Azam University bus stop and will end at the Jughi bus stop. This project was started to address the traffic issues that surface every Eid or weekend as a large number of vehicles use this route to visit Murree thus causing troubles for the locals.
