By Fazal Khaliq
MINGORA: Children, youth and civil society activists on Sunday warned of self-immolation against the provincial government’s decision to construct a Rescue 1122 office on a recreational site in Saidu Sharif.
They were protesting in front of the Small Park located in the College Colony here, holding banners inscribed with appeals to Reham Khan, spouse of PTI chief Imran Khan, and official ambassador for street children in KP, to help reverse the decision.
The former Swat state’s royal family member and PML-N leader, Shehryar Amirzeb, who was also present on the occasion, said the children needed more and more parks and grounds for recreation and games, but the government was snatching the already available few facilities from them.
“I don’t know why the government is replacing the park with the Rescue 112 building if there are several other government lands lying for nothing,” he said, adding the government should leave the land for the healthy activities of children and identify some other land for the purpose.
Mr Amirzeb said children and youth in Swat had been traumatised by the recent militancy and they needed more grounds and parks to come out of trauma and psychological issues. “This should not be used for point scoring and the elected representatives must look into the negative impacts of removing park from here,” he added.
Neelam Chattan, a child rights activist in Swat, appealed to Reham Khan to help the children of Swat by playing her role in reversing the government decision. “Taking the park and ground from the children of this area means the government is pushing these innocent children to become street children,” she said.
The park is also being used for playing gymnastic and karate and the athletes and players from the same park have earned several medals representing Swat district in different events.
“We have been playing here since 2001 and our gymnasts from the same ground have been playing on national levels and have won gold, bronze and silver medals” Habibullah, chief instructor of the Swat Gymnastic Academy told Dawn adding that he and the children manage the ground on their own.
He said that the government was crushing the talent of Swat children but they would not let them do so.
Waqas Khan a young gymnast who represented Swat district on national level in gymnastic said that he had learnt gymnastic on the same ground and daily played there.
“Now it is so sad that the government is constructing other building on our ground,” he said, adding that the government should have provided facilities for them instead of destroying the ground.
Another gymnast and karate player Maaz Ahamd who has also been playing on the same ground for the last ten years said that the government should not snatch the only facility from them.
Children said that the PTI government had promised to construct grounds on union council levels but they failed to do so.
“If the government did not reverse its decision of constructing building on the park we would first observe hunger strike and then set fire on ourselves for which the KP government will be responsible,” the children warned.
