SUKKUR, Feb 14: Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah said on Saturday that the prime minister had approved Rs280 million funds for construction of five roads and a women’s university in Sukkur.

He said at a on “Role of Shaheed Muhtarma Benazir Bhutto in democratic Pakistan,” organised by the People’s Doctors Forum at the press club that the prime minister had also announced Rs25 million for the upkeep of historic Lansdowne bridge and a total of Rs5 billion were being spent on establishment of a grid station in Rohri, roads in Sukkur, Rohri, Pano Akil and Salehpat and hockey and cricket stadiums in Sukkur.

The minister announced upgrading Numaish ground, Manzil Gah ground and establishment of trauma centre, burns centre and nursing college in Sukkur and an education city in Rohri.

He said that the dictator denied jobs to people during his 12 year rule, adding to number of swelling ranks of the unemployed. The government was trying to provide jobs to the jobless but it was not able to give jobs to all of them, he said.

He said that Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto gifted people of Pakistan with nuclear power and political awareness 34 years ago. If the governments had adhered to his manifesto of 1977, Pakistan would have become a developed country, he remarked.

He said that the government had inherited rising lawlessness, unemployment and price hike from the past governments, which were most of the time ruled by army dictators.He assured that the government was sincere in tackling the problems but they could not be solved overnight. It would take some time, he said.

Khursheed Shah said earlier during meetings with delegations of notables, traders, lawyers who called on him at the Circuit House that he would not tolerate illegal encroachments in the city.

He appealed to people to help remove the encroachments and help make the city neat and clean.

He directed the DCO to ensure shifting of denters, cattle pens and grain merchants out of the city within a month and then drove to IBA’s Sukkur branch where he laid foundation stone for its second academic block.