Anti-Christian report: Senators reprimand CDA chief for misleading parliament

The CDA says Christian community living in capital’s slums 'may increase Muslim majority'

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) may have deceived a Senate panel by saying that the Christian community living in capital’s slums “may increase Muslim majority”, but the trick backfired when the matter was debated in the Senate on Monday.

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani issued a notice to CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal for “misleading” the parliament, and asked the house committee on privileges to look into the matter and submit a report within a week.

The instructions were issued after a Senate Committee on Cabinet Secretariat submitted its report on the controversy, after the issue was pointed out by Senator Mushahid Hussain on December 14.

“I have no reason to believe that the report [of the CDA] is incorrect,” Rabbani said pointing out contradictions in it, which he said was aimed at misleading the Senate.

“They are playing with the vision of the founder of the nation Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, his speeches and constitutional provisions,” he remarked.

The authority twisted the statement it had submitted before the Supreme Court, and the Senate committee had also agreed with the revised version of the statement.

The CDA had submitted a report before the SC saying, “It is necessary to identify the fact that most of the Katchi Abadis are under the occupation of the Christian community, who shifted from Narowal, Sheikhupura, Shakargar, Sialkot, Kasur, Sahiwal and Faisalabad [and] occupied government land so boldly as if it has been allotted to them, and it seems this pace of occupation of land may affect the Muslim majority of the capital.”

The CDA chairman, however, pointed fingers at the media for misreporting the statement. While submitting a copy of the report it submitted in the SC, he stated that there were no discriminatory remarks made against the Christian community. The correct wording of the report, according to Afzal, was “it seems this pace of occupation of land may increase the Muslim majority of the capital,” as opposed to “affect the Muslim majority”.

The Senate committee, after perusal of the report submitted in the SC, observed that the “view point of chairman CDA was correct.”

“The CDA is trying to fool us all,” observed Rabbani.

On the one hand, the CDA is saying that Christians have shifted from seven cities to Islamabad and on the other it is saying that “Muslim majority of the capital may increase.”

“I was shown the other statement [by the CDA],” remarked the chairman of the Senate committee on Cabinet Secretariat, when Rabbani pointed out the contradiction.

Senate chairman invited the attention of Senators and ministers present in the house, and Raiz Hussain Pirzada endorsed the views of the chairman.

Senator Farhatullah Babar said it was a serious issue and asked whether the CDA “wanted to say that Christians living in Katchi Abadis would be converted” to have a Muslim majority in the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2015.