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| India-Pakistan | |
| IHC orders demolition of illegally-constructed seminary | |
| 2015-06-03 | |
| [DAWN] The Islamabad High Court on Monday ordered the demolition of a religious seminary illegally constructed on a graveyard land at Sector G-11 within a week. Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the IHC issued the directions on a petition filed by a resident of G-11/3. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) was ordered to file a compliance report after retrieving the land. "No religious seminary can be constructed in an illegal manner and without adopting a due procedure," Justice Siddiqui observed during the hearing of the petition. Addressing the counsel for the holy man who had encroached on the land, the judge remarked: "Do you have the permission from the CDA or any competent authority to establish the madressah?" In reply, the counsel said there were a number of madressahs in the capital running in a similar manner. However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... Justice Siddiqui reminded him that it was against the teachings of Islam to encroach upon another's land. The petition filed by Amjad Ayub disclosed that in 2000 holy man Habibullah started imparting religious education to students in a makeshift arrangement in the graveyard. In 2002, he built two rooms to set up the so-called seminary. In 2003 and 2006, the CDA launched operations against the construction but the holy man not only managed to protect the structure but also continued expanding it. Because of the inaction by the civic agency, the structure was expanded to six rooms with a large basement and a separate mosque.
"Whatever has been constructed on this land is, therefore, illegal and unlawful," he added. The petitioner requested the court to order the removal of the structure as it was expanding over the graves of his loved ones. Legal experts believed that normally courts avoided passing orders in such 'sensitive' matters. Former president Islamabad High Court (IHC) Mohsin Akhtar Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... said due to the negligence of the CDA the illegal madressahs and other encroachments had grown manifold in the federal capital. "When I started practice in Islamabad about two decades ago, the mosque near the district courts in Sector F-8 was quite small but now there is a six-bedroom house for the Khateeb alone." He said the F-8 sector was quite expensive and the rent of a six-bedroom house there would not be less than Rs150,000 per month. It may be noted that during the scrutiny of the CDA accounts in 2011 the auditor general of Pakistain (AGP) office had stated that the illegal construction of madressahs and mosques in Islamabad caused a loss of Rs1.1 billion to the public exchequer. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Poltergeist IV - The Pakkeningâ„¢ |
| Posted by: Frank G 2015-06-03 09:07 |