ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the administrator of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to take punitive action, if it considers so, against those responsible for negotiating a contract for opening a cinema house inside the Islamic centre in Karachi called Al-Markaz-i-Islami.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, had taken up suo motu notice on the application of Karachi Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) chief Naeemur Rehman Siddiqui who had accused that the then MQM-backed mayor of Karachi, Mustafa Kamal, had changed the name of the centre in 2008 from Al-Markaz Islami to ‘Centre for Art and Learning’.

Written in Urdu, the application also alleged that the city government in 2010 allowed conversion of the Islamic centre into a cinema house and even set up Shanzay auditorium on the top floor of the building where musical or stage programmes on each evening became order of the day.

On Thursday, the chief justice observed that the court would decide how cinema house could become functional inside the Islamic centre. He asked the KMC administrator that he might take action against the authorities which allowed the centre to be converted into the cinema house.

The court also allowed the Messers Funrama Arts and Entertainment, which established the auditorium as a platform for promotion of arts and cultural activities inside the Islamic centre, to submit their point of view before the court.

The court then postponed further proceedings for a month.

In its report, the KMC contended that the idea to construct Al-Markaz-i-Islami with a library, an auditorium and an art gallery for fine arts based on Islamic culture was primarily conceived by the then mayor of Karachi Abdul Sattar Afghani through a resolution on Dec 4, 1980.

Work on the project situated on 5.5 acres in Federal B. Area commenced in 1981 by the KMC engineering department that lasted over two decades. In 2005-06, 750 chairs were provided for and installed in the auditorium though no mosque was constructed as planned.

Earlier on June 16, 2003, another resolution was adopted unanimously by city council members for establishing an independent body for effective succession of the Quran-o-Hadith Nabavi Academy. It was proposed that the academy function under the patronage of the city nazim. It was also decided that a board for the purpose would initially be established in the Markaz-i-Islami building.

Again on June 23, 2003, a different resolution was adopted for the establishment of an independent board for research academy to be operated under a board of governor. But the academy and the board remained practically non-functional for which it was originally made and no progress was virtually observed. Thus, the very purpose of Quran-o-Hadith Nabavi Academy and the board was not achieved, the report said.

Since the administrative control of Al-Markaz-i-Islami was with the community development department of the city government, its culture wing suggested to change the name of the building, as no programme other than Islamic events could be held or organised at the venue under the emblem of Al-Markaz-i-Islami.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2016