PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has rejected a plea seeking directives of court for federal and provincial governments to take control and possession of all the mosques and provide salaries to its staff including prayer leader and Khateeb.

A bench consisting of Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar and Justice Kamran Hayat Khan Miankhel, while rejecting the petition, observed that interfering into the matter amounted to indulgence in the policy of government, which was beyond its jurisdiction.

Mohammad Nazir and 506 other citizens, seeking multiple reliefs from the court, had filed the petition over a decade ago and it continued to linger on due to one reason or another.

The petitioners had sought directives of the court for respondents including federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments to take into their control all mosques and provide financial assistance to the staff including Khateeb, Imam and Moazan.

Petition was filed about a decade ago

They had also requested for payment of utility bills of all the mosques by the respective government.

In alternative, the petitioners requested that the respondents might be directed to surrender mosques-owned Waqf properties and discontinue collection of Zakat and Ushr, income taxes, wealth tax, property tax, agriculture income tax, Abyaana, professional tax, agriculture tax, sales tax, excise duty etc.

The petitioners had requested the court to requisition reports submitted by presidents and governors in National Assembly, Senate and provincial assemblies of all provinces for implementation of the principles of public policy of constitution in general and about articles dealing with mosques in particular.

The petitioners counsel stated that Auqaf department had been paying a meagre salary to Imam/Khadim of those mosques, which were owned by it as waqf property, whereas other mosques, which were not owned by Auqaf department, ran its affairs including expenditures by begging or on donations, which was un-Islamic and condemnable for the Islamic state.

He stated that Pakistan was an Islamic republic and it was duty of an Islamic state to bear the expenses of mosques, as Imam and Khadim of mosques, not owned by Auqaf department, were being paid by locals, so it would be in the interest of solidarity of Pakistan to take control of and organise all the mosques.

He said that as per the mandate of Constitution of Pakistan, the president and governors were bound to submit yearly report and discuss the implementation of principles of public policy, as given in the Constitution, in Senate, National Assembly and provincial assembly. However, he claimed that since 1973, the requirement had not been fulfilled, as neither any report in that regard had been submitted by the president/governors, nor discussed by public representatives before the respective houses.

The additional advocate general, Taimur Haider Khan, and the assistant attorney general, Ishaq Khalil, appeared for KP and federal government, respectively. They opposed the petition requesting to turn it down, as it was not maintainable.

In its comments, the provincial government stated that the matter relating to release of honoraria/financial assistance to prayer leaders of mosques and minority worship leaders remained a function of Auqaf, Hajj, religious and minority affairs department.

It said that in the light of a decision of provincial cabinet taken in its meeting held on Apr 25, 2018, establishment department carried out necessary amendments in the Rules of Business 1985 and transferred the said function to Zakat and Ushr wing of Zakat, Ushr, social welfare and women empowerment department through a notification on May 11, 2018.

However, the government stated that subsequently after deliberation of secretary of Zakat with chief minister on the matter, it was agreed on May 28, 2018, that the arrangement was neither feasible nor possible due to financial constraints; therefore, the chief minister directed finance secretary to chalk out a proper mechanism for providing financial assistance to Aaima of Jamia Masajid and minority worship leaders of the province.

Accordingly, establishment department was requested to delete the said function from Zakat and Ushr department through an amendment in Rules of Business 1985.

“With regard to the first prayer of the petition in hand, suffice it to say that it has remained a matter of policy of provincial government, but has not yet been finalised, due to financial or any other plausible reason, so indulgence of this court in it would squarely be an attempt to interfere with the policy of the government. This court has no jurisdiction either to stretch or restrict the policy decision of the competent authority,” the bench ruled in its seven-page judgement authored by Justice Kamran Hayat.

The bench further ruled: “So far as the second prayer of the petitioners qua directing the respondents not to collect the government taxes is concerned, suffice it to say that any direction in this regard by this court would amount to interfere within the legislative domain of the government.”

“A court of law cannot ask or direct the government to make or amend the law/legislature, being not its mandate. Collection of all taxes has been mandated and backed up by federal as well as provincial law/statutes, which cannot be done away with by this court, while exercising constitutional jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, unless it is shown that same are ultra vires or unconstitutional,” the bench ruled.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2025