SAHIWAL: The students of the Government Faridiya College, Pakpattan, vandialised a wall, pelted a hospital with stones, staged a sit-in and later blocked traffic at Nagina Chowk for four hours in protest at, what they say, the encroachment of the college land by the owners of a nearby private hospital.

They alleged hospital owners broke college boundary wall and erected a new wall by encroaching seven to eight marlas late on Saturday.

The disputed land is worth Rs10 million. The local administration deployed police personnel to keep the crowd under control. Protesters chanted slogans against the hospital owners.

Dr Ihsan and Izharul Hasan - owners of Ghulam Muhammad Memorial Hospital - won their claim over the land from the court of the assistant commissioner revenue a few days back after a 10-year trial. Their private hospital is adjacent to the college’s western boundary wall.

Assistant Commissioner Ali Butter passed an order which accepted their claim on the college land. In the light of the decision, hospital owners with the tesildar and patwari retrieved land by breaking the college boundary wall. Dr Ihsan told Dawn he had the ownership deed of land, which originally belonged to Hindu auqaf. The land was transferred to his family at the time of partition.

Sherbaz, deputy director of colleges, told Dawn a five-member committee had been formed to determine the determine the ownership of the land involving revenue and Punjab land Record Authority officials.

One of the committee members Prof Yaqoob Chishti told Dawn till the committee ascertained the status, the status quo would remain intact.

Director Colleges Rana Shakoor also visited the scene and assured students that no one could occupy college land. Students said that one the one hand, the Punjab government was retrieving state land from illegal occupants, and on the other hand, a college land was being encroached.

The college is the biggest public sector college of the district and it is located in the center of the city. It is located on 42 kanals of the Auqaf Department.

When students saw the new boundary wall, they vandalised the wall and pelted the hospital with stones and bricks. The police convinced the protesters to get dispersed. The college principal said they had appealed against the order of the AC.

A senior faculty member of the college told Dawn if their claim on the land was legal, why the hospital owners broke the boundary wall in the dark.

DC Ahmed Kamal said if the college land belonged to the Auqaf Department, it should be a college versus Auqaf issue. He said he would look into the matter.

ACCIDENT: Motorcycle riding Assistant Sub-Inspector Iftikhar Ahmed died in a road accident near village 68/4-R on Monday in a collision with a car.

The car driver fled the scene. The ASI was deployed at the Sahiwal Coal-fired Power Plant and belonged to village 484/GB. The Noor Shah police registered a case.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2019