The Nawaz Sharif government is to spend Rs. 44 billion on a luxurious project for the twin cities in a short span of 10 months but it is not willing to release funds to the ongoing project of Lawari tunnel which is a matter of life and death for the people of Chitral. As the project was initiated by the ex-president Pervez Musharraf the successive so-called democratic governments deliberately overlooked it despite the utter sufferings of the people travelling in the winter. Less than half the amount allocated for the Metro-Bus project would have been sufficient for completing the Lawari tunnel in a period of four years and that, too, requiring a release in yearly installments of Rs. 5 billion or so. The current government did not bother to feel the magnitude of the plight of the Chitrali people who have no options available in the winters other than risking their lives passing through the rough, under-constructed tunnel and several lives are lost every year in the ordeal of travelling via the tunnel. Perhaps the blood of the people of Chitral has a different color or the sole merit for getting the attention of the present government is either to be as violent as the taliban or to support the PML-N candidate in the election which the Chitralites did not in the last election. This kind of sense of deprivation is echoing among most of the people of Chitral these days about the government authorities in Islamabad. If the government pays any heed to this daily plight of the people of Chitral it can surely vow to complete this tunnel in a short period as well, as it has launched and completed many large-scale schemes with relatively lesser scopes and merit. The Lawari tunnel is not merely a safe and all-weather route for Chital people but there are lots of strategic and economic dimensions to it, too, which are not hidden from the auth
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 18:21:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015