Lal Masjid cleric wants Jamia Hafsa rebuilt

Jamia Hafsa, a women’s religious seminary attached to Lal Majid, was badly damaged in July 2007's military operation

ISLAMABAD: Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz has approached the Supreme Court for the implementation of its eight-year-old verdict, which had directed authorities to rebuild Jamia Hafsa and make arrangements for education, boarding and lodging of female students.

Jamia Hafsa, a women’s religious seminary attached to the Lal Majid, was badly damaged during the July 2007 military operation in which more than 150 people had died. The operation was initiated on the order of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s administration.



Aziz through his counsel Tariq Asad has moved an application in the apex court, requesting it to direct the federal government to implement the court’s October 2, 2007 verdict.

The SC in its October 2 order directed the federal government to register an FIR for defiling of the Holy Quran and killing of innocent persons in Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa. It had also ordered to make compensation to the heirs of the deceased and reconstruct Jamia Hafsa within one year while making interim arrangements of education and boarding and lodging of students.



The petition states that it is a matter of constitutional principle that when rights are transgressed, the remedy must be provided. It says that it is envisaged in the Constitution that the judiciary shall be independent but the petitioner believes that judiciary has become apparently, no doubt, powerful and activist, but not independent; it is powerful for the weak, but weak for the powerful.


Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2015.