KARACHI: As the bells sounded ahead of Sunday morning service at Christ Church, a Church of Pakistan, on Mission Road here, the churchgoers, be they men, women, children or the aged in wheelchairs, assembled in its ground holding up banners instead of stepping into the church for service.

The hymns inside died down among the chants of the protesters demanding to know from Shahid Anwer, the pastor inside, and his brother-in-law Bishop Sadiq Daniel why their trust-owned land and property was being leased out and sold for commercial gains.

“Our ground behind Christ Church is being offered to Dow University for Health Sciences [DUHS] for holding their programmes. Not just this ground, other places, too, such as schools and other places of worship or where the Christian community is settled and which belongs to a trust, is slowly being disposed of to various parties in exchange for good money,” said Albert Massey. “This has been going on by these two without even consulting the community, so we have come out to raise our voices against this injustice and to protect our places ourselves before we lose everything.”

Felex Candara, another protester, who lives close to the church, said the ground behind Christ Church was owned by a trust and therefore neither it could be rented out nor sold.

His uncle Yousuf Candara said that normally a pastor remained at a church for three to four years before he was transferred to another Church of Pakistan but about the current pastor, Anwer, he said that he had been at their church for 13 years. “It is only the love of the land which he can rent or sell in portions that is really keeping him here. And his brother-in-law Bishop Daniel is a partner in the crime,” he pointed out.

“We condemn the illegal leasing out of Christ Church Mission Road Ground,” Edward Deen, another protester, said. He added that usually “it is DUHS that rents out our ground to hold its programmes”.

Another female protester then said that people of their community also held functions at the ground. “But that’s our right. Besides, we only hold our own wedding functions here. We don’t use our ground for commercial purposes,” she said.

When contacted by Dawn for his reaction, Bishop Daniel said he would never even think of leasing or selling church land. “In fact,” he said. “I am the one who went to court for a stay order against the land mafia and the illegal encroachments on it.”

The bishop further asked if the protesters could prove their story by showing any rent or sale agreements.

“They won’t have any such thing because it has not happened, at least not by me,” he said. “In fact, it is they who were constantly renting out the ground for all kinds of purposes,” he said.

“If you go a little further on Mission Road, you will find another compound which serves as their living quarters. They have been living there illegally, as squatters, for some 50 years. And now they have this brilliant idea of giving away church land, too,” he said.

“They already have been successful once by giving away part of the Church Missionary School to the Kutchi Memon community in the middle of the night when I was out of town. Now this!”

When Dawn contacted DUHS, its spokesperson said that they did not need to rent any ground for any function as the university had its own halls and auditoriums for the purpose, besides amply outdoor space for outdoor programmes, which included the Dow Ojha Campus Cricket Ground near Safoora Goth.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2018