King Hamad University a Bahraini government-funded project delayed for the past three years, many citizens in the name of land acquisition are displaced.
Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa offered to set up a state-of-the-art medical institution during his visit to Pakistan on March 14 2014. In July 2016, a delegation from Bahrain also visited Islamabad, headed by the then Assistant Under Secretary for the Arab Doctor shaiqa Rana Banta Isa Bin Daiz al-Khalifa, to finalize the project.
In 2014, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain had announced funding for a nursing university, and it was decided that Bahrain would pay for the university’s construction ($16 Million) while Pakistan would provide the land.
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The university is to be constructed on 237 kanals on Park Road, in the Chak Shahzad.After acquiring the land, CDA was to hand over possession to the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) to execute the project.
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif laid the foundation stone of the university along with prominent figures from Bahrain on 6 January 2017. In order to expedite the implementation of the project, a monitoring committee was also set up for the construction of the university, with the Minister of State for Health, the Prime Minister’s Office, the CDA, and ambassadors from both countries.
Citizens living in the area close to planned King Hamad University land were displaced by the CDA during the nighttime operation without notice and warrants even they says that they were living since 1980s. The CDA has given the forms of fake plots but the possession has not been granted even after more than a year passed.
Political Uprising correspondent Sajjad Kazmi has said that authority announced the BuP award in 2017 to pave the way for the construction of the university. It was initially announced that 782 people were eligible for the BuP award.
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According to CDA rules, the owner of a house with 300sq ft of covered area will receive a 25ft x 50ft plot, while the owner of a house over 300sq ft is entitled to a 30ft x 60ft plot.
The hostel was also planned to be made having capacity to accomodate two thousand students while Five hundred students were to be admitted annually.The university have to offered Masters, M.Phil and Ph.D. degrees.
Five years had passed since the project came under discussion but even the first brick did not laid yet.
King Hamad University offers a lot clues for National accountability bureau to investigate on as sources claim Ministry of Health hesitating in answering about 16 million dollars pre-set fund.