Visiting Hours: Shrines to be kept open two days

Auqaf department was against the restricted hours, resulted in a significant drop in revenue from the shrines.

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court has directed the Auqaf Department to keep the shrines of Bibian Pak Daman in Lahore and of Khawaja Aziz Makki and Baba Fariduddin Ganj Shakkar in Pakpattan open all day on Thursdays and Fridays.  The bench of Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Asad Munir also sought replies from the home secretary and the inspector general of police by August 3 on a petition challenging the daily closure of these shrines by 8pm. A lawyer for the Auqaf Department told the court that the department had been instructed by law enforcement agencies to close all shrines in the province by 8pm for security reasons. He said the department was against the restricted hours as it had resulted in a significant drop in revenue from the shrines. The court asked the petitioners when the shrines were busiest. They responded that they were busiest on Thursday and Friday, upon which the court directed the Auqaf authorities to open the three shrines for those two days each week. Petitioners Waqarul Hasnain Naqvi and Rana Tanvir had submitted that the restricted hours introduced following the bombing at Data Sahib in July last year had already been successfully challenged in the High Court, but the court’s orders had been ignored.





Published in The Express Tribune, June 17th, 2011.