MULTAN: The district intelligence committee (DIC) on Wednesday (today) will discuss the matter of restoration of historical Prahladpuri temple and celebrating Holi festival there on the direction of the Supreme Court.

A three-member apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed on Tuesday directed the authorities concerned to ensure the festival [in the temple] going to be celebrated on March 28.

On the SC direction, a one-man commission headed by former Federal Tax Ombudsman Dr Shoaib Suddle, visited the temple on Jan 1 while he was accompanied by MNA Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani and Advocate Saqib Jilani.

Earlier, in its meeting held on Jan 14, the DIC had opposed the idea of restoration of the temple while fearing that the move could create a serious law and order situation in the city and will put the lives of the minorities at risk.

During his visit to the city in 2015, the then chairman of Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), Siddiqul Farooq, had announced that the board decided to reconstruct one of the holiest and historical Hindu temple which was razed in 1992 by a protesting mob in retaliation for demolition of Babari Masjid in Ayodhya, India, while claiming that the civil work would be started in the month of July.

The initiative was taken on the request of the then Hindu parliamentarians who offered to utilise the share of their development funds for reconstruction of their holy place and Rs50 million were initially allocated for the purpose.

In 2019, the Supreme Court in a suo motu case regarding minorities’ rightshad constituted a one-member commission headed by Dr Suddle for the enforcement of its ordersin this regard.

Located on the north of the shrine of Hazrat Bahauddin Zakariya, the temple which is the beginning place of Holi, the festival of colours, was built by Prahlad Bhagat who was a sovereign of Kashapura (its present name is Multan) in 1550 BC.

Researcher and scholar Mehboob Tabish said Prahlad was born in Treta Yuga which is second out of four yugas (the ages of mankind) and lasted for 3,600 divine years or 1,296,000 human years.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2021