LAHORE: The PPP on Monday held its first demonstration at Jain Mandir against the Orange Line Train, showing solidarity with those being turned homeless by the Punjab government’s ambitious project.

A large number of local residents who have been served notices to vacate their houses for the project joined the demonstration and blocked the road for more than two hours.

Separately, a number of people also staged a demonstration and burnt tyres at Chuburji, reacting to official notices asking them to vacate their properties “within two hours” for construction of the train track.

At Jain Mandir, PPP’s Lahore Information Secretary Faisal Mir and Dr Zarrar Yusaf led the demonstration.

The protesters tried to refill a large cavity created there in connection with the train track with mud to give a message to the PML-N government that they would not allow it to execute the controversial project.

The local residents said they had been supporting Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif throughout their lives but they were depriving them of their houses. They chanted slogans “Mar jain gay, apnay ghar bachain gay” and “khooni train band karo” (We will die to save our homes - shut down the killer train).

Faisal Mir said a 20km-long underground train was planned in 2006 to transport 380,000 passengers daily, but Shahbaz Sharif’s orange train would run above the ground and transport only 25,000 people a day, he said, adding the properties of hundreds of families were being demolished and the affected people were receiving no compensation. Besides, he said that more than 25 historical sites would be affected by the controversial project.

He said the Punjab government was acting like the Israeli authorities by providing just “two hours’ notice” to the residents for vacating the properties.

“The Palestinians are treated in Israel the same way,” he said and vowed the PPP would not let Shahbaz Sharif turn Lahore into Israel and would stand by every person affected by the Orange Line train.

He said only 2.2pc of Lahore and 0.2pc of Punjab would be benefited by the project. “The government should stop the construction related to the project and call for a public review,” Mir demanded.

Dr Zarrar Yousaf said a similar train was built in Rio De Janeiro (Brazil) in 2015 with a budget of 31 million dollars, whereas the train system was being built here by Shahbaz Sharif for 61 million dollars.

At Chauburji, the protesters burnt tyres and blocked the road for traffic and chanted slogans against the government for getting their properties vacated forcibly on a very short notice without giving them a handsome compensation.

They said that they would not surrender their premises to the government without getting proper compensation in advance.

They demanded the chief minister should intervene and order the authorities concerned to give them at least 20 to 30 days so that they could make some alternate arrangement for their businesses. If the officials tried to get their property without compensating them handsomely and giving them sufficient time, they would forcibly stop construction work on the Orange Line track, they warned.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2016