RAWALPINDI: Differences have cropped up among the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) local leaders over the provincial government’s willingness to start work on the multi-billion rupees Leh expressway project.

In order to resolve the traffic congestions, the Punjab government recently approved the launch of work on the metro bus service worth Rs38 billion between Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

However, Awami Muslim League (AML) president Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) local leaders opposed the move, saying the government should instead start work on the abandoned Leh expressway.

It may be noted that the Leh expressway project, a brainchild of Sheikh Rashid, was launched during the tenure of former president Pervez Musharraf in 2007. However, after coming to power in the Punjab in 2008, the PML-N shelved the project.

Facing criticism from Sheikh Rashid and the PTI over the metro bus project, the PML-N provincial government decided to start work on the expressway project.

However, the decision was not taken well by the local leaders of the ruling party led by PML-N city president Sardar Naseem and former MNA Malik Shakil Awan.

They feared that the launching of the expressway project would bring political benefit to their rival Sheikh Rashid, who is also the MNA from NA-55.

On Friday, when Sheikh Rashid raised the issue on the floor of National Assembly and asked the government to start work on the Leh expressway project, PML-N leader and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan assured the house that he would take up the matter with the Punjab chief minister.

However, the PML-N local leaders said Chaudhry Nisar’s wrong policies during the pervious tenure had cost the party heavily in Rawalpindi and its result was seen in the May 11, 2013, general elections.

All the seats in the city were won by the PTI and even Chaudhry Nisar lost one of his traditional seats in Taxila.

“The way the party is being run in the Rawalpindi division has created problems for the local leaders who faced people in their constituencies while the main leaders always agreed with their opponent Sheikh Rashid.

The government is all set to once again favour him to stop criticism on the metro bus project,” said a party leader requesting not to be named.

When contacted, former MNA Shakil Awan said the PML-N was never against the Leh expressway project but the government needed Rs50 billion to start work on it.

“The metro bus project is meant for providing travelling facility to the people while the Leh expressway was for private vehicles plying between Rawalpindi and Islamabad.”

He said the PML-N local leaders were against Sheikh Rashid as he had done nothing in his 25-year-tenure in government and was now blackmailing the government through unnecessary criticism on the project.

“The provincial government should not listen to the criticism over the metro project as it would provide facility to more than 150,000 commuters daily. The Leh expressway project can be started after completing the metro project,” he said.

PML-N city president Sardar Naseem said the Leh expressway project was not meant for the common people while the metro bus project would facilitate the common citizens, especially the salaried class.

He said for the metro bus project, the government would acquire 20 kanals of private land but for Leh expressway it needed more than 800 kanals, both residential and commercial. This is not possible for the government at least during the current fiscal year, he added.

In a veiled reference to Sheikh Rashid, the PML-N city president said the sitting MNA wanted to create differences in the PML-N to make a comeback to the party.