Lal Masjid boundary wall: City, mosque admins offer conflicting views

The wall was torn down, but the mosque claims it will be rebuilt at state expense; government denies.

ISLAMABAD:

The city and Lal Masjid administrations Monday came up with conflicting statements over the construction of boundary wall around an amenity plot located next to the mosque.

One of the members of the Lal Masjid administration claimed that the mosque committee allowed the CDA to demolish a recently constructed boundary wall on the plot after the mosque committee and city administration reached a verbal agreement.

However, CDA and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration officials denied having given the mosque committee any verbal assurances.



A day before Eidul Azha, the mosque committee built a four-foot high boundary wall around a plot where the Jamia Hafza women seminary was previously located. Jamia Hafza was illegally built on encroached land by the Lal Masjid administration and was bulldozed in 2007 following the bloody Lal Mosque operation earlier the same year.

On Sunday, the CDA enforcement directorate razed the wall and removed the debris from the location.

“We only allowed the demolishment of the wall after representatives of the CDA and ICT Administration assured Abdul Aziz and members of the mosque committee headed by Mohammad Younis Qureshi that it will be rebuilt at government expense within one month,” Claimed Mufti Tehsinullah, a member of the Lal Masjid administration.

Tehsinullah further claimed that the city administration also assured the mosque committee that any amount spent by the mosque administration on the construction of wall would also be reimbursed.

He said the city administration had requested permission to tear down the wall for face-saving.

Tehsinullah said that it was also assured that the CDA or ICT administration would not create any hindrance in performing prayers on the plot after it had been leveled and developed at the government’s expense.

Liaqat Abbasi, the CDA enforcement director, did not support the mosque administration’s claims, but did refer to an agreement signed between the ICT Administration and Lal Masjid in 2008.

“An agreement exists that allows the mosque administration to use the amenity plot for holding Friday prayers or Eid congregations,” Abbasi said, adding that things had not yet been finalised as claimed by the mosque administration.

He said mosque administration was of the view that a wall should be erected around the plot so that it could be saved from the access stray animals. “We have been looking into the apprehension of the mosque administration,” Abbasi said.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Amir Ali Ahmad said the issue was resolved amicably. “I was not part of the team that negotiated with the mosque committee and Abdul Aziz, but to my knowledge, no verbal assurance [regarding rebuilding the wall] exists,” Ali said.

During the previous PPP regime, a 20 kanal plot in H-11 was given to the Lal Masjid for the construction of a new building for Jamia Hafza.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2013.