ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Religious Affairs has notified the Pakistan Hindu Mandirs Management Committee to supervise and exercise control over general management of temples across the country.

The committee will be responsible for facilitating Hindu yatrees (pilgrims) and making their journey and stay within Pakistan as comfortable as possible apart from other necessary arrangements related to their reception and farewell on each religious occasion.

The Mandir Management Committee is also responsible for assisting relevant government departments to remove misunderstandings between Hindus and Muslims, in order to bring both communities together.

Most temples are under the administrative control of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) and funds for the repair as well as general maintenance are also provided by the board.

Additionally, the committee is responsible for general supervision of different functions or activities inside mandirs.

Members of the committee from Sindh are Krishan Sharma, who belongs to Mithi, Tharparkar, Dewan Chand Chawla from Sukkur, Ashok Kumar from Karachi; Ameet Kumar Shadani, Mohan Das Ghotki and Niranjan Kumar, all of whom belong to district Ghotki, and Virse Mal Dewani, who belongs to Lasbela district, Balochistan.

Members from Punjab include Amarnath Randhawa (Lahore), Megha Arora from Rawalpindi and Haroon Sarab Diyal from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Ex-officio members of the committee are chairman ETPB, joint secretary Ministry of Religious Affairs and secretary to the committee will be the additional secretary (shrines), ETPB.

The committee is also responsible to arrange for daily morning and evening prayers inside mandirs.

A separate account will be opened to store funds for each mandir.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2021