ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: The Ministry of Religious Affairs and the local Auqaf department are reluctant to take over the administrative control of mosques and religious seminaries in Islamabad due to their heavy liabilities in terms of unpaid utility bills and pays; insiders told Dawn on Monday.

The Senate standing committee on interior had decided to discuss the issue at a meeting to be held on Tuesday but it was postponed to October 25.

The sources said the minister for religious affairs was reluctant to take over the administrative charge of all the mosques in the federal capital which were at present under the supervision of the Auqaf department.

“It is not the duty of Auqaf department to look into the affairs of mosques and Madressahs, because it only deals with evacuated land and shrines,” said an official of the local administration on condition of anonymity.

He said the local administration, which had limited funds to run its own affairs, was unable to meet the liabilities of mosques and Madressahs, including their unpaid utility bills running into millions of rupees.

The Senate committee, in its meeting on October 25, will also discuss issues relating to the exact number of mosques under the administrative control of Auqaf, criteria/procedure for the construction of new mosques, the role/responsibility of local administration in payment of the utility bills, and reasons for non-release of the Rs9 million electricity and Rs5.5 million gas arrears by the Ministry of Finance to the Auqaf department.

The committee will also discuss matters relating to Khateebs/Moazzans on the payroll of Auqaf, duration of their posting on the present positions/mosques with reasons/justification of the overstay, if any, along with the appointment, posting and transfer criteria/procedures, and facilities provided to them in terms of government accommodations or allotment of plots as compared to other employees of the Auqaf department.

It has been learnt that the urban or sectoral area of the federal capital has a total of 153 Madressahs but they all have been declared 'unauthorised' after being built without approval of the authorities concerned.

“There are 153 Madressahs in the urban area of Islamabad and all are unauthorised as no permission was sought for their construction from the CDA,” said an official of the civic agency.

He said there was a seminary attached with majority of the mosques despite the fact that even the authorised mosques had no such provision.

Under a recent survey jointly conducted by the CDA and the local administration/police; 76 mosques and 153 seminaries in different sectors have been declared 'unauthorised'. However, the government seems helpless in taking action in this regard, sources in the local administration said.

The number of total mosques in both urban and rural areas of the federal capital is said to be over 600, while there are over 350 seminaries.

When over 70 mosques and 153 Madressahs have been established in violation of the government rules in the urban area of the capital, the number of such constructions in the rural area should be anybody's guess.

“The survey has been conducted on the directives of the interior ministry to ascertain the number of unauthorised Muslim worship places and seminaries,” an official of the local administration said. He said the role of the local administration in the survey was very small as it was actually conducted by CDA and the police.

However, it seems impossible for the government to take any action against such mosques and seminaries amid intensified spate of terrorist attacks by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan which is backed by most of the religious sects dominating in the capital.

When contacted, a senior official of the CDA said a total of 276 mosques existed in the capital of which 220 were authorised while 56 built without permission from the CDA, local administration and police.

It has been learnt that unauthorised construction of mosques is again on the rise in Islamabad as a number of such worship places have been built in the recent past indicating that the authorities concerned were not making serious efforts to check their mushrooming growth, fearing reaction from the religious organisations.

Some of the mosques have been built within the last few months in Sector G-11 and G-10 right under the noses of the police and CDA.