KARACHI, Feb 23: Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan has condemned the plan to demolish certain mosques to make way for the Lyari Expressway project, and demanded that the plan be done away with.

Speaking at a meeting in PIB Colony, JUP leader MNA Sahibzada Fazal Karim said that the government intended to demolish Masjid Ahmad Raza and Masjid Qadri, besides the shrine of Pir Kifayat Ali Shah. He vowed to resist any such action.

He said that it was unfortunate that the mosques were being demolished in Pakistan, which came in to being in the name of Islam. He alleged that the demolition was being carried out to please the West.

He deplored that the government was not touching a number of shopping plazas, markets, residential blocks, etc raised illegally on the state-owned lands across the country but appeared ready to demolish the identified mosques and shrine.

He said that the government should start a dialogue with the stakeholders instead of resorting to using brutal state force to find a solution to this sensitive issue.