Gurdwara demolition

The partial demolition of Singh Sabha Gurdwara makes a travesty of the laws that come under the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Rawalpindi with regard to changes made to a house of worship, including temples and gurdwaras. The ETPB’s summoning of the Rawalpindi division commissioner to handle the matter of the principal of Ziaul Uloom High School for Boys establishing a mosque within the gurdwara premises, which also house the school, is appropriate. Popular perspectives of citizens of Pakistan seem to be that any belief system or sect apart from the religion of the majority is inferior — and perhaps the same mentality was at play here. It is time to take such egomaniacs to ‘school’.

Being a government school principal, the irony should not be lost that somebody who technically represents the body that makes this country’s laws is responsible for breaking some of those very laws. The most plausible explanation would be that the mosque was built out of the principal’s fervour for his own faith with a simultaneous disregard for the fact that the school he runs is housed in an edifice already dedicated to a different belief system. The theory of ignorance about the law against building a mosque within is tenuous and would require more convincing, or at least investigation. Ignorance of law can never be an excuse to forego punishment, no matter what the offence.

Actions such as the above augment the resentment marginalised communities have in Pakistan. Sikh and Hindu communities are allowed to feel agitated by the principal’s decision. One can only imagine a deadly riot-like situation if circumstances were reversed. The dignity of minority community members has been stripped by state actors and civilians for decades in Pakistan. It is time to earn back their respect by according them the same respect, ceasing to treat them as less than humans and appreciating the diversity they add to this country.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2017.

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