The government’s failure to complete Women College located on Police Station Road in Rawalpindi, even after a decade, is clear indication of its indifference towards the education sector.
Sources in the education department told Pakistan Today that the construction work of the government college for women has been halted due to political reason, adding that there is no dearth of fund. They said that the Punjab government planned to shut some schools in the district so how it could be expected from such a government to start work on the long-awaited under-construction college.
Pakistan Muslim League-N’s (PML-N) government is often criticised for launching mega projects and lack of interest towards health and education sectors. The stalled work on the Government College for Women for around 10 years despite completing about 70 per cent of its construction work further strengthened the perception.
Talking to Pakistan Today, locals of the area complained that the government halted the work on the almost-complete college due to political reason, as its foundation stone was laid by the then Railways minister Sheikh Rasheed back in 2007, who managed to obtain eight kanals of land from Pakistan Railways for the college and the it was estimated to cost around Rs40 million to build.
However, they said that since then the construction work has been stopped during the last government Shakeel Awan, the then PML-N MNA from the constituency promised to complete the work and placed a plaque of his name of Rs. 20 million; however the dream has yet to come true.
They were of the view that politicians always looked the projects in lenses of political mileage instead of public interests. The under-construction degree college falls in the NA-55 constituency, represented in the National Assembly by Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, an arch rival of the PML-N.
Imran, a local resident, told Pakistan Today that the locals of the area are facing great problems due to non-availability of college in the locality due to which girls of the area have to travel to other areas to get education, but the government has not paid attention to address the issue.
He said that it was a project of pure public interest but the greedy politicians crashed projects of the public interests for their own vested interests.
“Dwellers of Ahata Sheikh Fazal Ellahi, Babu Mohallah, Praim Gali, Fazal-e-Haq Galli, Ahata Mithu Khan, Movi Mohalla, Khazanchi Ahata, Koila Center, Police Station Road, Railway Road, Ghandam Mandi, Bhusa Mandi and for Railway colony have to travel for a wide to get an education.
There is little chance that construction work would be resumed on the college, whose building started rusting, giving a look of garbage dumping place and a stable, Ayaz Gujjar, a resident, told Pakistan Today. He said that millions of rupees spent on the project were being wasted because the building is now starting to decay.
He said that there is an Army College present in the area but the children of civilians could not get admission because of an 80 per cent quota for army officials’ children, adding that there is no postgraduate college for the over three million civilians in Cantt Saddar.
A senior official in education department on condition of anonymity told Pakistan Today that the project would be further delayed because the government is in no mood to allocate fund for its construction. However, he said that the government may start construction work of the college few months before the next general elections so as that it could be used for political mileage.
Pakistan Today tried to get in touch with senior PML-N leaders Shakeel Awan and Senator Chaudhry Tanvir, but they did not respond.
