
If the state is willing to tolerate such a Faustian pact, then it has nobody but itself to blame and the problem of unauthorised mosques (and other structures owned and operated by ‘influentials’) is merely going to proliferate everywhere. The green belts of Islamabad have been appropriated and 45 mosques built on them and there are 14 unauthorised mosques in the capital’s biggest slum, the so-called Afghan Basti. Even those mosques that started life legally have encroached upon adjacent land or added floors above what they were originally planned for — with little thought of building regulations or the safety of those using the buildings. Commenting on the report, a CDA official acknowledged that razing a mosque, either authorised or unauthorised, was a virtual impossibility, and there is brisk trading in the unauthorised mosque sector which effectively institutionalises its presence. A battle lost before it has even been joined.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 21st, 2015.
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