Stop the demolition: Sikhs to protest on Friday

EPTB chairman says he will cancel construction of plaza on holy ground today.

LAHORE: Sikhs will stage a protest on Friday in Lahore over the construction of a plaza on gurdwara land. There will be a sit-in in front of the Punjab Assembly for two hours against the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) administration, Sikh leaders told The Express Tribune on Wednesday.

Sardar Bishon Singh, a former president of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Perbandhak Committee (PSGPC) said that if the government failed to stop the construction of a plaza over Gurdwara Deewan Khana the Indian Sikhs will join their protest and send delegations to Pakistan to record their protest.

He said that the prime minster (PM) had met with an Indian Sikh delegation led by Shiromani Gurdwara Perbandhak Committee (SGPC) representative Sardar Swinder Singh Doblia on November 27, 2010. The PM, he said, had at the time told the ETPB to stop the construction of the plaza on the land. He said at the time EPTB had complied with the order but on March 19, the construction had resumed.

According to details provided by Sardar Bishon Singh, Gurdwara Deewan Khana measured 12 marlas and 60 square feet, with the property no F-2147. The gurdwara has been around for 400 years and is situated in Chuna Mandi. He said the Deewan Khana is part of Gurdwara Ram Das and is reputed to be the place where Guru Ram Das Gee wrote some parts of Granth Sahib.

He said that 9 tenants had temporary shops near the gurdwara for many years. In 2007, he said, the EPTB struck a deal with the tenants to build a plaza on the gurdwara land. He said that when he spoke with then EPTB chairman Lt Gen (retd) Zulifqar Hameed explaining, the land could not be sold and only another gurdwara could be built on the land, the chairman put a stop to the deal and told the tenants to continue their business at their shops as usual, he said.

Under the current EPTB chairman Asif Hashmi, the deal finally went through in 2009, he added. He said that he was abroad at the time. He said that he lodged a protest with Hashmi when he came back.

The Sikh leader said he had told the tenants not to construct the plaza but they had ignored his requests. A part of the gurdwara was demolished and the construction of the plaza was started on 19th.

He said that if religious sites were not protected in the country that will be a violation of the Constitution besides being an international embarrassment.

Hashmi told The Express Tribune that the deal had been done before he took office. He said that he would cancel the deal between the tenants and his department [on Thursday]. He admitted that the site had religious significance for the Sikh community. He said that after cancelling the deal, he would return the amounts paid by the tenants as part of the deal.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2011.