Lahore High Court’s Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh has sought arguments on Wednesday from the counsel for a petitioner on the maintainability of his plea challenging a temple’s construction in Islamabad.
Petitioner Muhammad Akif contended in his petition that Pakistan is an Islamic republic and in a and Islam is the religion of this country and in a Muslim state there is no provision for the construction of new worship places for the non-Muslims in the capital. He stated that Islamabad was constructed initially by former president Ayub Khan and in the by-laws of the Capital Development Authority there is no provision available that a place for a temple be provided for the Hindu community.
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He claimed that many Muslim scholars had issued edicts that in an Islamic state no permission should be granted to non-Muslims for building new temples. He said that in 2013 a query was forwarded by an official to Nazim Darul Afta, Darul Uloom Karachi on whether public exchequer could be used to build a new worship place for non-Muslims and for its maintenance. In its reply, the he Darul Uloom, Karachi stated that “construction of worships places in Islamic state is against the norms of Islam”.
He said the respondents have given permission and provided government land, which is against the fundamental rights of the petitioner and other citizens of Pakistan. The petitioner said that as per the record of the Election Commission of Pakistan, there are only 178 Hindus residing in Islamabad and they have a temple for worshiping.
He requested the court to declare the notification issued by the authorities for the provision of land for construction of a new temple as illegal and unlawful.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 7th, 2020.
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