Interior Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, announced on Wednesday to convert his famous residence, Lal Haveli, into a university.
Addressing media after the inauguration of the Multipurpose Academic Hall at Government Associate College for Women, Sheikh Rashid said that Lal Haveli would be given the status of a university in the future.
“Lal Haveli will play a role in educating girls from top foreign universities,” the minister said.
He said that colleges and universities should be set up in vacant plots wherever they’re found around Rawalpindi.
The home minister said that special attention is being paid to transport for girls’ colleges. He said that no female student would have to walk more than one kilometer.
Sheikh Rasheed said that he has now turned his focus on the health sector, and public hospitals are being upgraded. The minister said that Holy Family Hospital had been given 20 ventilators.
“Besides, Nullah Lai Expressway and Ring Road projects have also been approved,” he added.
About Lal Haveli
The Haveli has historical significance as it was built and used by Dhan Raj Saigol, a member of a wealthy Hindu family in Jhelum. He made it for his mistress Budhan Bai, a beautiful dancing girl from Sialkot. He gifted this Haveli to Budhan Bai once he left for India some hundred years ago.
Dhan Raj had a mosque and a temple built in the Haveli – the temple for himself and the mosque for Budhan Bai. It remained her residence until before the independence of Pakistan. She left the place when her brother was murdered here.
