NAROWAL: An Pakistani-American couple has completed a Rs25 million model village development project in their native village, Hajiwala, as a give-back gesture.

Dr Muhammad Sajjad and Dr Shazia funded various projects in Hajiwala, from where Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf, father of Dr Sajjad, went to the United States in 1971 for employment after completing his MSc in physics. Sajjad was born in the US, but he and Shazia received their medical education from the King Edward Medical College, Lahore.

Rana Aslam, an elder of the village, looked after the execution of the projects. Under the plan, the dysfunctional water plant has been restored. To provide clean drinking water to the people, water pumps were installed in the village streets so that people can benefit from the facility.

A sewerage system has been inaugurated and the pond outside the village has been widened to accumulate the sewage.

Recently, Deputy Commissioner Saba Asghar inaugurated a Rescue 1122 station, which was also funded by the couple. A gym has been built for the youth in the basement of the Rescue 1122 post.

Up to 2.5 acres were purchased in Hajiwala village to provide healthy activities to the children and a playground has been constructed.

The local graveyard has got the treatment too, and it has become a place of green landscape. Local talented students’ higher education will be mentored and financed.

Aslam said Dr Sajjad had earlier planned to buy an Rs25 million plot in Lahore but later he changed his mind and started investing in his parents’ native village. He said Dr Sajjad visited his village two years ago and was shocked to see the lack of basic amenities of life. Residents of Hajiwala, a village of 10,000, were deprived of clean drinking water.

He said the village was located on the Pakistan-India international border. In more than 150 neighbouring villages, he said, students have access to government level education only up to matriculation.

He said the students commuted to Narowal city for higher education on motorcycles and rickshaws after matriculation. He said they were working with the government to set up a girls’ college in the border area. He said theyr were also ready to donate land for the construction of a girls college.

Local residents Mohammad Bashir and Asghar Ali said the village lacked sanitation and other facilities and their several requests to the deputy commissioner and local politicians fell on deaf ears.

Aslam, also a US resident, has provided land and finances for the Narowal Commerce Postgraduate College, Old Age Home, Shelter Home and the Orphanage.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2022