ISLAMABAD, July 22: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will select a new Imam for the Lal Masjid, who will be a regular employee of the Auqaf department, government sources told Dawn on Sunday.

The sources said the Auqaf Department of Islamabad administration, which had been asked to come up with a penal of eligible and suitable Ulema, had finalised its proposal and sent it to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.

The proposal carries the names of three Ulema, however, the sources said any other Khateeb who was not part of the penal could also be selected by the prime minister.

A senior official in the local administration, who did not want to be named, confirmed that a proposal carrying three names had been sent to the PM’s secretariat.

However, he was reluctant to disclose the names. “We are trying to appoint an unbiased and uncontroversial man as new Imam of Lal Masjid,” he observed.

The official said the new Imam of the mosque would be appointed in government’s Basic Pay Scale (BPS)-12 and there were chances that he might be given extra perks and privileges.

It is believed that the appointment of a new Imam from the same Deoband school of thought to which former Imam Maulana Abdul Aziz belonged would be quite difficult, and it would be equally an uphill task for the new Imam to face criticism and security threats.

Responding to a question about the opening of Lal Masjid, he said it was expected to be opened for prayers by the first week of August.

However, Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Kamran Lashari said the mosque would be ready for the prayers by Friday (July 27).

It is pertinent to mention here that, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), an alliance of religious parties, had warned the government to open the mosque by July 27, otherwise it would stage protest demonstrations and rallies.

Mr Lashari said the renovation work on the Lal Masjid was continuing on fast track.

“We will complete the work by July 25 and then it will be up to the local administration that how many days it would require to appoint a new Imam for the mosque,” he noted.

The CDA chief said the mosque’s exterior walls had been painted beige and the interior apple green, adding that the boundary wall had also been lowered from 10 feet to three feet.

The government had already approved a Rs13 million plan to renovate and remodel the mosque, which was badly damaged in the eight-day battle that claimed 102 lives and bruised sentiments all around.

Responding to a question about Jamia Hafsa, he said the bullet-riddled building of the seminary had been covered with green net and its fate would be decided later.