KARACHI: The pavements lining the well-manicured lawns of Malir District Prison had pink and blue arrows painted on them. Following them one arrived at a white pillared enclosure decorated with blue and white balloons. Right in the middle of the place stood a small limestone building with a white cross above its entrance. It was the King of Kings Church that was inaugurated here on Monday.

There was the cutting of the ribbon by Inspector General of Prisons Kazi Nazir Ahmed following which bunches of balloons were released into the air along with several white doves as the prisoners looked on with broad smiles on their faces. The Malir prison has some 140 Christian prisoners who will now have access to this little church.

Around 140 Christian prisoners get a place of worship

Hanook Masih, an undertrial prisoner, told Dawn that he was glad to have a place of worship in jail now. “Earlier, I used to pray in my barracks but now I can come here. I am grateful to prison authorities to have also thought about us Christian prisoners,” he said.

Farhan Zaib, another Christian prisoner, said that he often felt the need to attend regular church services. “Now I can do that by coming here every Sunday morning,” he said.

Waseem Lal Bhatti also shared that he had been waiting for the church to open. “I wish it was open by this past Christmas,” he said. “Hopefully, I won’t be here still next Christmas but in case that I am, at least I will have a place to go to.”

Pastor Ashley Nunes, present at the inauguration, spoke about the significance of places of worship in prisons. “From 2001 to 2011, I used to lead prayers for several Nigerian prisoners in central jail. I found them keen and looking for a way to repent,” he said.

The credit for the King of Kings Church in Malir District Prison goes to Angel Welfare Trust. Its chairperson Samina Nawab told Dawn that the idea came to her after she noticed the mosque on the prison premises. “All inmates need a place to pray, I thought. But all of them didn’t necessarily have to be Muslim. I was thinking of them when I asked the prison authorities to let us build a church for them here,” she said.

“We started our work by first renovating the mosque in the prison. That done, we started construction work of the church near it. There was this 240sq-yards of land in a corner nearby on which we built the church, which is itself has a covered area of 120sq.yards,” she said, adding that the construction of the church took them about one year.

IG-Prisons Nazir Ahmed also said they are next planning to construct a temple for Hindu prisoners in the Malir jail.

“We care for and respect people of all faiths. The prisoners are no different and we want them to have the freedom to go to their places of worship as was the wish of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2022