ISLAMABAD: Twelve years after Jamia Hafsa in G-6 was razed, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) is asking its administration to demolish its new building voluntarily because it has been built on land for a children’s park in G-7.

In a notice dated Dec 18, the CDA has directed the seminary’s administration to halt unauthorised construction on the land for the children’s park.

The notice, which is addressed to the Masjid Committee and Madressah Al-Hafsa and available with Dawn, said it has come to CDA’s notice that violations of the 1963 Islamabad Building Regulations and 2005 Islamabad Residential Sectors Zoning Regulations have been committed by Jamia Hafsa.

These violations include the unauthorised and illegal establishment of the seminary building in the children’s park adjacent to Masjid Al-Falah and encroachment on CDA land.

Notice warns authority will forcefully remove violations if seminary does not do so within 15 days

The notice has directed the seminary to remove these violations within 15 days from its date of issuance, failing which the authority will take action to remove the violations forcefully through its enforcement directorate.

Sources in the Ministry of Interior said the matter was being monitored closely. A couple of months ago, Special Branch of the capital police also pointed out that the seminary was gradually expanding on to the state land.

The original Jamia Hafsa building was located in G-6.

It was demolished by the government along with a children’s library following the 2007 Lal Masjid operation.

After the military operation, the government and the mosque’s administration reached an agreement under which the CDA would provide an alternative site for the reconstruction of Jamia Hafsa.

The CDA allotted the seminary 20 kanals in H-11 but sources said the allotment has not matured yet.

The sources also said before the military operation, Jamia Sumya was being operated in G-7. When Jamia Hafsa was demolished, Jamia Sumya was renamed as Jamia Hafsa and construction began to expand the seminary.

They said the Special Branch also highlighted this construction in October and revealed that Maulana Abdul Aziz and his family had moved to this seminary after the 2007 operation.

“Now, preparations are being made to lay the roof of the second storey of the seminary towards street 302, G-7/3-2,” said the Special Branch in a report shared with the CDA a couple of months ago.

Lal Masjid was built in 1965. Its khateeb at the time, Maulana Mohammad Abdullah, built his residential quarters on the land behind the mosque soon after.

A public children’s library was built near the mosque in the 1980s. In 1992, the Jamia Hafsa building was constructed by encroaching on 7,500 square yards designated for a women’s library and a social club.

A spokesperson for the Shuhada Foundation, Hafiz Ihtesham Ahmed, said there was “no truth” to the CDA’s claim that Jamia Hafsa was built on the children’s park land.

“When the Lal Masjid operation was carried out in 2007, there was Jamia Sumya on that land in G-7. We later renamed it as Jamia Hafsa,” he said, adding there was no children’s park in the area and the seminary was built on a plot belonging to Masjid Al-Falah and expanded on to an abandoned vacant land near a drain.

He also claimed that CDA by-laws allowed people to use open space if they had legitimate land near a drain or a graveyard “and we did the same thing.”

He admitted that the buildings were constructed without approved building plans, claiming that the CDA had “used delaying tactics in approval of the building plans.”

A CDA official refuted Mr Ahmed’s claim, saying there was no provision to use state land for construction whether meant for a park, drain or graveyard.

Mr Ahmed also said the seminary administration would file a case against the CDA notice in court.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2019