Daily Times

LAHORE: Takhat Hazara, an aboriginal village of one of the most important icons of Punjabi history– Ranjha, has been under severe threat, as River Chanab turned its route towards the village, submerging several acres of land in the water.

The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday, taking serious notice of the issue and to safeguard the historical village as well valuable agricultural land from Chanab, passed a resolution, urging the government to ensure establishment of riverbanks.

River Chanab is changing its route in the Sargodha region and has already taken acres of land of different villages, including Takhat Hazara, Miana Hazara, Saikday, Kot Shahabal and Baryana, which were located close to its banks. Several houses and agriculture fields with crops have been submerged into the river.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Tuesday called the meeting of his cabinet’s flood committee, headed by the provincial minister Nadeem Kamran, to take immediate measures in this regard. The resolution was moved by a treasury member, Mian Manazar Hussain Ranjha, who was also called to attend the meeting.

The mover of the resolution informed the House about the gravity of the situation and importance of passing his resolution in order to save the villages from the river.

During the session on Tuesday, the House passed also a resolution, moved by Faiza Mushtaq, demanding construction of ramps for special persons at all public transports.

The PA session on Tuesday started one hour and 30 minutes late to its scheduled time. The House adopted the Question Hour on Schools Education Department, queries of which were answered by minister Rana Mashhood. He told the House that the government has adopted a policy to constitute a high school in every union council of the province to promote education and facilitate children. He said that the government had decided about the upgradation of schools along with starting double shifts, adding that schools have also been selected for implementation in this regard.

The minister said that his government had made a plan to establish 36,000 new classrooms and would also appoint around 70,000 new teachers in the schools across Punjab by next year. He said that the government had allocated Rs 14 billion in the NSP Fund for schools while disciplinary action has been taken against 19,000 teachers on their poor performances during the last two years. Answering a query related to the Care Foundation, he informed that his government had handed over some schools to NGOs, as the total strength of students in those schools was less than 25.

On the occasion, an opposition member claimed that the government had closed as many as 8,000 schools across the province but the minister did not acknowledge it as a fact.

On a point of order, Opposition Leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed said that the law minister has criticised Rangers for demolishing the MQM offices in Karachi. He demanded the minister to apologise on it, as the MQM chief was delivering hate speeches against Pakistan, which was highly condemnable.

Giving an immediate response to it, the law minister said he had already condemned Altaf Hussain for his hate speeches by passing a resolution in the assembly two days ago. He said it was not a fact that Rangers were demolishing MQM offices in Karachi, as the Sindh CM already claimed that the administration, on his orders, demolished those political party offices, which were illegally established and constructed on government lands.

The law minister further stated that it has now been disclosed that Altaf Hussain delivered such a ludicrous speech deliberately to destabilise the PML-N government, adding that two people in Punjab were also working on the same agenda by doing container politics.