MULTAN: The office of the Multan commissioner has turned down anapplication of a local PTI leader to make a public passage on the premises of a government college to facilitate the adjoining localities, Dawn has learnt.

Former Union Council No 5 chairman Rao Mazharul Islam, accompanied by a close relative of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, met him (CM) during his last visit to the city and submitted his request for making public passage in writing. The chief minister handed over the application for appropriate action to Commissioner Shanul Haq.

The application which was signed by Mr Islam and other residents of the area states the college has closed an old passage for the residents of Yasin Colony, Ghaziabad, Al-Atta Colony, Al-Muazzam Colony, Ilyas Town, Chah Bajaywala, Zakariay Town and Gulshan-e-Maher Colony. It stated that many of the students of various other educational institutions like Government Junior Model Girls High School, Laboratory Model Higher Secondary School besides the schools of Chah Munshiwala, Chah Koraywala and Gulshan-i-Maherwala were being facilitated because of that passage. Besides, the areas of Ittefaq Colony are facing sewage problems as the pipeline of wastewater has been abandoned. It requested the chief minister to issue the direction to clear the closed passage.

Commissioner Shanul Haq directed Director Development and Finance Waqas Khakwani to look into the matter and submit a report in this regard. On June 3, the college administration was directed to submit its point of view over the issue.

On June 6, in his report, college principal Tanveer Khan said there was no public passage.

“Such a passage never existed at all and so there arises no question of blocking it by the college administration,” he stated. He stated that there are 2,500 students of the college out of which 350 are girls and how can an institute like this ever think of allowing any public passage through its premises.

He said that over the past few years, the security agencies were concerned about the building line of Ittefaq Colony which has its back to the college premises and asked to construct a proper boundary wall along the building line. He stated that recently funds for the missing facilities of the colleges were allocated and the college administration got constructed the wall on a priority basis while keeping in view the security concerns.

“The construction of this part of the boundary wall on a priority basis probably is the reason that Rao Mazharul Islam has tendered this application. He had his own wicked designs that seem now hard to be fulfilled.

This man has his ‘dera’ or political office right at the back of the academic campus of the college. To reach his dera he uses College Road and has to move left into that 12-foot road of Ittefaq Colony to reach his dera.

The point is simple he wants that road to move straight all through the length of the college premises and reach direct to his political office so that he and his political accomplices feel no discomfort in approaching his place,” he stated.

He stated the road coming from Bosan Road is also built on the college property and is the only way being used by the college’s staff and students while the college did not install a gate over there by allowing the residents of Ittefaq Colony to use it.

“But it does not mean that college will allow for any public passage through the boundary wall of its main academic campus. It will be nothing but ravaging the privacy and security of the institutions. The sewerage line was laid through the college land some ten years back due only to the sheer political pressure of the MPA of that time. No approval of it was sought from any authority and it is illegal and ill-intentioned. The evil design behind it was also the same, to use it as a pretext for more future claim for some road or public-passage through the college land and the same person was behind it,” he stated.

Director F&P Waqas Khakwani said he himself visited the site and found the point of view of college administration correct.

“That’s why we have turned down the application,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2020