PESHAWAR, Jan 23: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday observed that Islam guaranteed complete freedom to religious minorities for practising their faith and there was no bar on construction of their places of worship.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan and Justice Qaim Jan Khan disposed of a writ petition, challenging the reconstruction of a church on the Peshawar University campus.

The petition was filed by two students of the NWFP Agriculture University, stating that the reconstruction work on the church was illegal.

The petitioners, Murtaza Ali and Salahuddin Ahmad, said that the construction work had been going on without approval from the university syndicate.

They said that the construction of the church would create law and order problems in the university.

They said that the reconstruction of the church would give birth to unending demands by other religious minorities for the same purpose.

At the outset of the proceedings, the chief justice inquired from the petitioners’ counsel why they had been trying to portray Islam as a religion which was averse to religious freedom to the minorities.

Justice Tariq Pervez observed that Islam and the Constitution of Pakistan guaranteed protection to the religious minorities.

He said that Islam always believed in peaceful co-existence between people of different faiths.

The chief justice said that Muslims had been constructing mosques in non-Muslim countries and had openly been propagating their faith then why the petitioners were against reconstruction of a place of worship of a minority community.

The petitioners’ counsel, Khursheed Ahmad Shahan, contended that in missionary institutions Muslims were never allowed to construct a mosque. The bench observed that Muslims in missionary institutions were allowed to practise their faith and nobody stopped them from offering prayer.

Mr Shahan said that the syndicate had not been taken into confidence by the university authorities and the provincial government.