LAHORE, Dec 12: The Government St. Francis High School land in Anarkali area has become a source of friction between Lahore’s Christian community and the City District Government as the latter had raided, demolished the wall and put up its gate day before yesterday (Tuesday).

The Christian community and Church officials responded to in the same coin by demolishing the gate and putting up its own small gate yesterday (Wednesday).

The PTI minority wing led by MPA Shaneela Routh on Thursday staged a protest demonstration against the CDGL’s action in front of Lahore Press Club and chanted slogans against the Punjab government for backing the land mafia.

The PTI demanded that the Punjab government should stop discriminating Christian community and officially hand over 170-year-old St Francis High School to the community. Ms Routh said any attempt of encroaching upon the school land would be resisted and raised at all forums.

PTI’s Punjab president Ejaz Chaudhry strongly condemned government’s action against the rights of the Christian community and termed it an “anti-peace action”.

He said on the one hand Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was crying hoarse for education emergency and up-gradation of schools while on the other hand he was backing the land mafia involved in encroaching upon schools. He alleged that the land mafia had in the past cut 15 old trees and took away precious infrastructure of the school.

PTI leaders demanded that the school should immediately be handed over to the Christian community.

Sources in the Christian community allege that the Punjab’s PML-N government wants to encroach upon the prime land of the school and Anarkali Church on Aabkari Road to construct a plaza illegally.

They say the land belonged to the Church and was supposed to be officially handed over to the Women Catholic Church way back in 2004 after denationalization of educational institutions.

The school falls in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s NA-120 constituency.

The PTI’s minority wing has also raised this issue and registered its concern with the Punjab Assembly.

DCO Dr Ahmad Javed Qazi said the allegations of construction of plaza were frivolous, adding that the government wanted to construct additional rooms under an approved scheme worth Rs6 million. He said the school’s building was in a state of disrepair and needed renovation to protect the health and lives of school students.

He said the handing over of the school management to the Church was an issue pending with the government and agreed that it should be decided.

Mr Qazi said the issue should not be given a religious colour, saying he had invited Church representatives for a meeting early next week to know about their fears and take remedial measures to allay their fears.

He said the Church had blocked government’s repair plan early this year as it had approached the Lahore High Court which had ordered the government not to demolish any part of the building and also allowed to do repairs wherever necessary.

He said the court had also not refrained the government from doing construction for the school.

Alleging discrimination against Christians, sources say the Punjab government had also bulldozed an old home “Gosha-e-Aman” in Garhi Shahu area and has abandoned it since early 2011.

“Law Minister Rana Sanaullah had assured on the assembly floor in 2011 that the Gosha-e-Aman land along with additional two kanal land would be handed over to the Christian community. We are still waiting for law minister’s promise to be fulfilled with our fingers crossed,” said Ms Routh while talking to Dawn.

She said the Women Catholic Church’s 16 schools were nationalized and they had taken over 15 schools but were running from pillar to post to get a notification for this school for the past one decade.