ISLAMABAD: Legally speaking, the Lal Masjid has not had a Khateeb since 2004, as the order notifying Maulana Abdul Aziz as the khateeb or imam (prayer leader) of the mosque was withdrawn by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration in 2004.

“There has been no notified khateeb in Lal Masjid for almost 10 years, except for the brief period of less than a week, when Maulana Ashfaq Ahmed was made the khateeb ,” a senior official of the ICT administration confirmed on condition of anonymity.

But, Maulana Ashfaq, who was posted to Lal Masjid from Bilal Masjid, was thrashed by students of various seminaries as soon as he arrived at the mosque to lead Friday prayers after it was reopened following the army operation in July 2007.

The notification of Abdul Aziz as khateeb of the Lal Masjid was withdrawn by the ICT administration in 2004 after he issued a fatwa against the army and its operation in Waziristan.

This fact was also acknowledged in a report prepared by the Lal Masjid Commission, set up following the army operation against the mosque. The commission was headed by Justice Shahzado Sheikh of the Federal Shariat Court.

The report said: “In 2004, the Lal Masjid clergy issued a fatwa calling on people to join militant resistance against the army in Waziristan. They declared that those fighting Pakistani forces were martyrs and urged people not to give Islamic burials to the soldiers killed fighting the militants.”

However, despite withdrawing the notification of Maulana Abdul Aziz as khateeb of Lal Masjid, neither has the cleric vacated the government-owned mosque, nor have authorities tried to enforce their decision. This situation continued until the events of 2007 started to unfold.

After the government’s bid to appoint Maulana Ashfaq Ahmed as prayer leader of Lal Masjid failed, the mosque was closed again.

“At this point, the students of Jamia Hafsa staged several protests, even in front of the Supreme Court, demanding the reopening of Lal Masjid and establishment of a seminary for girls,” Ehtesham Ahmed, chairman of the Lal Masjid Shuhada Foundation, said. “Eventually, the apex court took suo motu notice and ordered the reopening of the mosque.”

On October 3, 2007 the Supreme Court ordered the Islamabad administration to open Lal Masjid for prayers and Aitekaf purposes.

A two-member bench, consisting of Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi and Justice M. Javed Buttar, conducted the suo motu proceedings.

The court observed that in an Islamic state, a mosque could not be closed for an indefinite period.

Meanwhile, a former ICT administration official said the court directed the administration to act in accordance with the advice of Umme Hasaan, the wife of Maulana Abdul Aziz.

“The court observed that Abdul Aziz was the khateeb of Lal Masjid and as long as he was in prison, a way out should be sought in consultation with Umme Hasaan,” the official said.

The ICT officials, Ehtesham Ahmed and even the incumbent Naib Khateeb of Lal Masjid, Aamir Siddique, corroborated this account.

“When the authorities approached Umme Hasaan, she suggested that Maulvi Abdul Ghaffar, the administrator of Jamia Fareedia, be made the temporary khateeb of Lal Masjid while I be appointed the Naib Khateeb,” said Aamir Siddique, who is also a nephew of Maulana Abdul Aziz.

Prior to his appointment as Naib Khateeb in 2007, Aamir Siddique was a grade 15 khateeb at the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation in Islamabad.

“But then, there was a technical issue; there was no post of Naib Khateeb in Islamabad, the only two posts available were of Khateeb in grade 11 and a muezzin,” said an official of the ICT Auqaf Department, adding that “the interior ministry created a special post of naib khateeb specially for Lal Masjid in 2007 and appointed Aamir Siddique to the post.”

Since it was decided that Maulana Abdul Ghaffar would be the temporary khateeb for Lal Masjid, he handed over the reins of the mosque to Maulana Abdul Aziz on April 16, 2009, after the latter was released on the Supreme Court’s orders.

In his first sermon following his release after almost 21 months, Maulana Abdul Aziz had said that it was due to the sacrifices of Lal Masjid that Sharia had been enforced in Swat and the tribal areas.

On September 24, 2013, Maulana Abdul Aziz was acquitted in all cases pending against him.

Meanwhile, Ehtesham Ahmed, the chairman of Shuhada Foundation, filed a contempt case in the Supreme Court, seeking appointment of Maulana Abdul Aziz as khateeb of Lal Masjid.

“We filed an application in 2012, in which we pleaded that the directives of the apex court acknowledging Maulana Abdul Aziz as khateeb Lal Masjid were not being fulfilled,” Ehtesham Ahmed.

However, the ICT administration is still reluctant to take up the issue of appointing Maulana Abdul Aziz as the khateeb, claiming that the decision would not be in the interest of the city.

“However what is worrisome is that the interior ministry was not fighting the case against the directive of the Supreme Court,” the ICT administration official added.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2014