TOBA TEK SINGH: A decades-old dispute has resurfaced between the education department and a religious seminary management over reconstruction of the building of an abandoned gurdwara declared rundown and owned by the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) located outside the grain market.

The 14 marla 109sqfoot land of this centuries-old dilapidated building was simultaneously used as a gurdwara and marriage hall till Partition. Its ground floor with a 15-foot high roof was used by the education department and accommodated the primary section of Government Model Middle School, Eidgah Road where currently a few students of grade class 3 studied.

In 1986, under a decision by the then ruler Gen Ziaul Haq, the Muslim Auqaf Faisalabad chief manager had transferred the upper storey to Anjuman Madniyia Hanfia (Deoband) seminary where at present 40 students were learning the holy Quran and getting formal school education.

Centuries-old gurdwara declared rundown; ETPB offers alternate land

Seminary Principal Maulana Mujeebur Rehman told Dawn that his family had foiled several attempts in the last few decades by influential land grabbers to occupy this land. He said on Jan 6, the tehsil municipal administration (TMA) had issued him a notice that the structure had been declared rundown by the buildings departments during a survey, and asked him to vacate it within seven days.

He added that he had filed a writ petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) where Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan ordered the Punjab school education secretary to decide the fate of the building within seven days as its condition was deteriorating by the day. But the secretary failed to do so and seven months later on July 7 transferred the case to the ETPB chairman as the board had transferred part of the land to the seminary management.

Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Shafiq and Executive District Officer (Education) Rao Attiq had visited the building a couple of days ago and the principal claimed they had offered him alternate land for the seminary saying a modern school would be built after demolishing this rundown building.

The principal claimed the district government or education department had no right to offer him alternate land as this piece had been transferred to the seminary by the ETPB.

Meanwhile, while addressing a press conference on Sunday at the seminary, Majlis Ulema Islam Emir Maulana Amin Rabbani, General Secretary Maulana Matiur Rehman Abbassi, Majlis Ihrar Islam Emir Maulana Ismail, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leaders Maulana Hasan Muawia and Maulana Mahmoodul Hasan warned that if the administration attempted to occupy the seminary land the religious activists will resist the move. They announced that a protest camp would be set up outside the seminary on Aug 4 and the next day a protest would be observed across the district to condemn the administration’s attempt to occupy the land.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2016