Report by body on Bhara Kahu Bypass expected tomorrow

Islamabad : The committee formed by the Prime Minister on the dispute between the Quaid-i-Azam University Campus Community and Capital Development Authority on the construction of Bhara Kahu Bypass which is dividing the QAU Campus into two territories is expected to submit its report by November 15.

The Committee was formed after observations/directions from Islamabad High Court. Headed by Sardar Ayaz Sadie, Federal Minister of Law, also committee includes Law Minister, the committee includes Marryium Aurangzeb, Federal Minister for Information, Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira, Advisor to PM on Kashmir Affairs & Gilgit-Baltistan, the Interior Secretary, the Secretary Minister of Education, the Chairperson CDA, the Vice-Chancellor, QAU, and Munawar Iqbal Duggal, the Deputy Attorney General. The committee recommendations will be placed before the Federal Cabinet for deliberations/decision and “further action will be taken accordingly,” said a letter issued by the Secretary to the Prime Minister.

The Academic Staff Association through a legal committee comprising its faculty had approached Islamabad High Court and got a weeklong stay on Oct 18 issued which had been extended many times.

The QAU Syndicate has already okayed the CDA plan with some ifs and buts but the faculty, and employees. Alumni Association and students object to the project as in their view, the 600-feet wide Bypass starting from Murree Road near Malpur is encroaching into QAU Campus near Bokhari Road which separates QAU from its new Housing Colony and Botanical Garden on the eastern end of Shahdara Road.

The majority of the Campus Community complains that Murree Road is operated by National Highway Authority which has right over 110 feet from the median of Murree Road on either side from Srinagar High junction up to Satra Meel and construction on the road are supposedly made after agreement with NHA that the same may be vacated whenever the NHA needs it for the road expansion and other amenities.

It may be mentioned that NHA on June 14, 2021, had submitted an Environment Impact Assessment Statement Report for the construction of a 4-lane flyover at Bhara Kahu on the main Murree Road which PEPA had already approved.

The Campus Community insists that why the Flyover is not constructed on main Murree Road for which there is an approved EIA Report also instead of cutting the QAU Campus into two.

The CDA opined that the QAU route was chosen as it was fearing litigation by shopkeepers of Bhara Kahu and it did not want delay in this strategic road that connects Rawalpindi with Murree and Kashmir. The majority of the faculty, employees, students, and alumnae observed that the real bottleneck is a commercial store, a petrol pump, and a building operated by security outfits otherwise Metro Bus flyover was constructed over Benazir Bhutto Road in Rawalpindi despite the opposition of shopkeepers.

They also point to another route starting from the terminal of Green Transit Bus Service at Bhara Kahu. The terminal is within QAU territory from where the diversion could be made into QAU territory in its easternmost corner on the left and could easily be linked with the Bypass on which CDA had already started work. The QAU land encroachement can be compensated by CDA somewhere else adjacent to the Campus. At least this option does not bifurcate the campus, they say.

The PDM government has not had much time at its disposal and wanted to complete the project within a few months in order to add another feather to its cap but the question is should it be done at the expense of the No 1 University of Pakistan which is the only one in the country included in the top 500 universities of the world?