LAHORE, June 16: The Lahore High Court on Friday stayed a shopping plaza construction on the Krishna Temple land near Rang Mahal, and sought reply from the Evacuee Trust Property Board chairperson in a writ petition challenging the demolition of the temple. The court issued the prohibition order on the argument of advocate Fawad Husain who submitted that no law of the land allowed a religious building to be razed to ground and the use of its property for any other purpose.

He also submitted that damaging or demolition of a worship place attracted the mischief of blasphemy and section 295 of the PPC provided for an imprisonment of two years for the desecration of religious places and property belonging to religious minorities.

The writ petition was filed by Om Parkash Khatri of Lal Kurti Bazaar, Rawalpindi, who sought a court direction to the police that a criminal case be registered against the ETPB chairperson and other officials responsible for the demolition as well as the jeweller who was the beneficiary of the unconstitutional action.

Advocate Fawad submitted that the ETPB notification of March 9, under which the decision to demolish the temple was taken, contravened the Constitution and a number of other international declarations and covenants, including the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and brought a bad name to the country across the world.

He submitted that the federal government had wrongly stated that the demolished Hindu temple was not the famous Krishna Mandir and that the same was situated at Ravi Road.