More ground conceded to Lal Masjid clerics: Seven mosques to be rebuilt
By Ahmed Hassan
ISLAMABAD, April 11: Although efforts being made to resolve the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa crisis appeared to be making little progress, reliable sources said that the government’s negotiating team led by Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was optimistic about a positive outcome.
Chaudhry Shujaat, who has the government’s mandate to resolve the issue through dialogue, held on Tuesday night his second meeting in three days with Maulana Abdul Aziz and Maulana Abdur Rashid Ghazi, the heads of the two institutions, to exchange views with them and find a way out of the crisis.
According to the sources, he promised to the two Maulanas that the seven mosques demolished by the Capital Development Authority as unauthorised structures would be rebuilt.
The PML leader invited representatives of the mosques to his home on Wednesday.
Minister of State for Information Tariq Azeem said the talks progressed satisfactorily and he hoped that the issue would be resolved amicably and peacefully.
Chaudhry Shujaat did not want to make any public comment while the negotiations continued.
PML secretary-general Mushahid Hussain, talking to newsmen after holding talks with some clerics and officials of the Islamabad administration separately, described the ongoing negotiations as positive.
He said the PML president was in constant contact with the chiefs of Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa.
He claimed that Chaudhry Shujaat had held successful dialogue with the two cleric brothers on the question of the demolished mosques and had also exchanged views with officials of the interior ministry, the CDA and the Islamabad administration.
The imams and representatives of the mosques, however, complained that most of them were not allowed to meet the PML chief and some of them could only talk to him for a few minutes without going into the real problem.
Maulana Imran, Imam of Hamza Masjid, one of the demolished mosques, said he had met Chaudhry Shujaat for only three minutes during which no substantial talks took place and the PML chief only said: “Everything will be OK.”
Maulana Hanif Jallendhri of the Wafaqul Madaris had been asked by Chaudhry Shujaat to assist him in the negotiations, the sources said.
They said Maulana Jallendhri told the representatives of the mosques that the government was ready to reconstruct the Hamza Masjid, on which work was under way, and a mosque in Sector I-8.
