ISLAMABAD: 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 cleric 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, 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 cleric 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 cleric 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.

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui directs CDA to remove the madressah and file compliance report within a week

“Under the law, neither the CDA can allot the land reserved for the graveyard to anyone nor anyone can encroach on it,” said Shamshadullah Cheema, the counsel for the petitioner.

“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 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 Pakistan (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.

According to the audit report submitted to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) earlier this year, “about 305 mosques/madressahs had been illegally constructed on CDA land in various sectors.”

The report said on January 22, 2013 the audit authorities had asked the CDA member estate to remove the illegal constructions with the help of the local administration.

In 2005, during the government of General Pervez Musharraf, a campaign was launched against the illegally-constructed mosques and madressahs. When the CDA started an operation against the illegal madressahs, clerics and seminary students reacted aggressively. In response to the demolition of a mosque, the female students of Jamia Hafsa occupied the Children Library in Sector G-6. This led to the violent clash between the Lal Masjid students and the army which was called in by the district administration.

Sources in the CDA, however, said due to the resistance from the local residents and the fear of retaliation from seminary students, the civic agency avoided taking action against the illegal madressahs.

When contacted, educationist A. H. Nayyar told Dawn that the number of illegal madressahs had grown because there was ‘no rule of law’. He said in the absence of the rule of law, the rule of power worked. Those who grab the land have certain backing and this is the reason the government becomes helpless to retrieve the land.

CDA legal adviser Nazeer Jawad assured the IHC that the order would be implemented within seven days.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Jawad said the civic agency had support from the local residents to retrieve the land. “Since the petitioner was also a local resident, the CDA can demolish the structure without facing any resistance,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2015

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