Jamaat-e-Islami leader and former provincial legislator Younus Barai on Thursday demanded of the government to reconstruct University Road immediately, which is in dilapidated condition. Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club, he warned that JI would start protest if the road was not repaired as the broken University Road is adversely affecting commuters and at least one million people residing in adjoining areas of the road are suffering.
The JI leader said that despite release of funds at least four times during last 13 years, nothing has changed on the ground. He said that the road was reconstructed 13 years during the tenure of JI's City Nazim Nimatullah Khan and since then no development work has been carried out. He said that the Jamaat-e-Islami has decided to launch a campaign to get the issue resolved. In this regard, he said, stakeholders would be taken onboard to approach the provincial minister for local bodies as well as concerned governmental authorities. Barai warned that the party would start protest if the construction work was not initiated by 15th of the next month. He said that only a stretch of three kilometers out of 13 was carpeted during the last decade.
"The University road passes through 29 local government union councils, two constituencies of the national assembly and three constituencies of provincial assemblies but officials pay no heed to maintain its condition," he said. The JI leader said that though authorities have been claiming that reconstruction work has been initiated on the road but indeed no orders have been issued to any concerned department till now. Engr. Omer Farooq, Khalid Khan of National Labor Federation, Saleem Omer and others were also present at the press conference.