Bhara Kahu bypass splits the top-rank University into two non-communicating parts: Alumni

Shazia Mehboob

Islamabad: The construction of Bhara Kahu Bypass over Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad land is equal to dividing Pakistan’s premier public sector institution into two non-communicating halves. This was stated by the QAU Alumni Association at its meeting on Saturday.

While expressing serious reservations on ignoring the concerns of The varsity faculty, alumni and other stakeholders are seriously concerned on the construction of the bypass and even more saw being not listened.

The Association is appealed to the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to review the decision and change the route of the bypass or construct an overhead bridge so that the country’s premier public sector institution can be protected from division/ encroachment.

Muhammad Murtaza Noor, a member of the core committee, said there are many alternative options that could be implemented to prevent the spilt of the university. He said the CDA can construct an overhead bridge on the pattern of the metro bus route on old Murree Road or bring changes to the route of the project so that the institution could be prevented from being divided.

The meeting pointed out that QAU, being a prestigious higher education institution of Pakistan, has been ranked continuously among the top 500 higher education institutions by Times Higher Education and other reputed global ranking agencies.

But, instead of declaring it a flagship institution through provision of required financial resources and resolving long pending land encroachment issues, its precious land is being further possessed for a new project without addressing the reservations of the concerned stakeholders.

The core committee also decided that the alumni would protect the precious land of the alma mater in close coordination with all the stakeholders including ASA-QAU and no compromise would be made in this regard.

They fully supported the legal stance of QAU faculty at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and vowed to play an effective and an important role to protect legitimate interests and land of their alma mater. The core committee observed that in 1967, 1709 acres land was allotted to the university but so far an estimated 450 acres of precious land has not been completely handed over to the university due to illegal encroachments.

Instead of addressing the decades-long pending issues of demarcation of the varsity land of over complete 1709 acres, completing of its boundary wall and end of illegal encroachments, another project was started by Capital Development Authority (CDA) without addressing the serious concerns of the stakeholders and without obtaining NOC by Environmental Protection Agency, Murtaza Noor deplored.

The alumni, across the globe, would continue to raise their voice to protect prestigious and top-ranked federal higher education institutions and will monitor the situation closely, the meeting was informed. They hoped the federal government and concerned institutions would immediately address the genuine concerns raised by the stakeholders of Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.