Spending Rs 20 billion on Lahore Chairlift is a joke with the people of Punjab: PAT

Lahore: The provincial president of Pakistan Awami Tehreek Basharat Jaspal has termed the approval and making of a feasibility report for a Rs 20 billion ‘Lahore Chairlift’ as crude joke with the poor people of Punjab.

Chairing a PAT provincial Executive Council meeting here on Friday he said that the Punjab Government has planned to make a 22 kilometer long Chairlift on top of the canal and the metal overhead bridges are being erected in advance which will do the job of its stations.

The meeting was of the view that the poor people of the province do not need any such lavish project and these are only to please the Punjab CM who has a shortcoming to see such useless project. They said that such projects are planned only to accommodate and give contracts to their relatives and blue-eyed politicians who will mint billions from this project while it has little or no utility for the poor people of the City.

Basharat Jaspal said that the burden of this project will once again fall on the shoulders of the poor people of the province who instead of receiving any benefit from the Punjab Government will have to pay additional taxes to fill the stomach of this project.

The meeting was of the view that the huge amount that the CM plans to spend on this useless project can bring a lot of relief to the less developed areas of Punjab. Several Punjab areas lack clean drinking water, health facilities and educational facilities and this amount can provide them such basic facilities.

The meeting said that the Punjab Government should spend this money on government schools so that they are not given into the custody of the private sector and at the same time the 15 years old unlawful agreement of giving City District Government schools into the private sector must be ended. This is after it came to the knowledge that 147 CDG Schools are being handed over to private parties as the government is not in a position to run these schools. Jaspal said if the Punjab Government cannot run its own schools than it should pack and go home instead of spends precious amounts of the poor people of Punjab on useless chairlift projects.The central secretary of PAT Khurram Nawaz Gandapur attended the meeting as a special guest.