OKARA: The fate of a decades-old mosque hangs in the balance between traders and the auqaf department.

The 55-year-old complex that houses Jamia Masjid Usmania, popularly known as Gol Chowk Mosque, and 120 smaller shops was constructed in 1952 on a circular plan in the heart of the city. It is surrounded by four main commercial bazaars — rail, hospital, Saddar and kutchehry. The upper storey of the mosque has 40 spacious chambers that are used as warehouses by the shopkeepers inside the complex, as well as 10 residential apartments.

Ten years ago, the administration and traders realised the condition of the mosque as well as the shops was deteriorating. But it was only in 2014 that the buildings departments of Okara and Sahiwal as well as a team of the National Engineering Services Pakistan declared the mosque “dangerous and unusable”. The supervisory office of auqaf department is situated on the upper storey of the mosque, but no renovation or repair had been undertaken.

When concerns started mounting, the auqaf department and the district administration took stock of the situation and as well as measures for getting the surrounding shops vacated from traders for their renovation or reconstruction.

Auqaf District Manager Irfan Mehmood told this correspondent that the government had sanctioned in this year’s budget a grant of Rs100 million for repair and reconstruction of the mosque complex, including the shops.

The task was to be achieved in three phases. The first phase, for which Rs22 million had been received from the government, included the southern side of the mosque, including 51 shops and the upper chambers. A contractor had been granted order for repair of 37 shops out of the 51 on priority, and the work was scheduled to be completed before June 2017.

The dangerous situation of the site had been conveyed to the shopkeepers and notices issued for vacating the shops, but the shopkeepers had refused to accept the notices.

The administration and the Markazi Anjuman-i-Tajiran had held several meetings over the years to solve the problem, but to no avail. President of the traders body, Mian Munir Ahmad, had maintained that the shopkeepers did not object to any repair work, but they would not allow complete demolition of the mosque complex. He said it was inefficiency on the part of auqaf department that did not sense the severity of the situation initiated repair and renovation all these years.

A few days ago, District Coordination Officer Sucrat Aman Rana had constituted an eight-member committee, including the assistant commissioner, tehsil municipal officer, executive engineer and district officer (buildings), Anjumn Tajiran President Chaudhry Saleem Sadiq, Chaudhry, Fayyaz Zafar and Imam Qari Saeed Usmani of the mosque to mutually come up with a solution.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2016