Following the alleged blasphemy incident, a mob torched two churches and some 150 houses belonging to Christian residents of Joseph Colony. PHOTO: REUTERS
The Lahore High Court on Friday issued notices to the federal government and the Punjab governor regarding petitions by 28 Joseph Colony residents affected by the March 9 arson and rioting.
They claimed that they had not received the compensation announced by the federal government. Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan of the LHC asked the respondents to file replies on the petitions within three weeks.
The petitions filed by Khurram Shehzad and others say that the Punjab government had announced compensation for those affected in the incident and instructed the city government to assess the damage to the houses.
City government officials investigated the losses and recommended compensation for 150 persons. The petitioners’ counsel said that based on the city government’s recommendation, the Punjab government paid compensation to those affected.
The federal government too had announced Rs500,000 compensation for each person affected in the incident. This money was to be distributed by the governor.
The petitioners said the governor gave the compensation to only 112 victims, while 38 were ignored. They accused the governor of discriminating on the basis of political affiliation. The petitioners said they had tried to contact the authorities concerned but were still not given the money. The petitioners claimed that their losses could not be covered with the amount paid by the Punjab government.
They submitted that the governor’s action was discriminatory and thus a violation of the provisions in Article-124 of the Constitution. As citizens, they deserved to be treated on equal footing as they had faced similar losses, the petitioners submitted.
They prayed to the court to direct the federal government to give them the compensation awarded to them. The court heard the initial arguments and sought a reply from the government and governor in three weeks.
On March 10, President Asif Ali Zardari had announced Rs0.5 million compensation for each of the affected. President Zardari had also met with former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf regarding the incident and summoned Governor Ahmed Mehmood to Karachi to brief him. The president had then directed the governor to report the developments regarding the incident on a daily basis. He also asked him to distribute compensation cheques among those affected.
A 3,000-strong mob had torched more than 150 houses in Joseph Colony over alleged blasphemous remarks against Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) by Sawan Masih, a 28-year-old Christian sanitation worker.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 8th, 2013.
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