ISLAMABAD: The federal capital, which is already dotted with a large number of unauthorised mosques, will now have an approved mosque on the land of a public park in G-13/3.

G-13 was developed and is being regulated by the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA), a subsidiary of the Ministry of Housing and Works.

The authority has surprisingly approved the mosque in a public park, causing unrest among the residents of the sector, who have been terming this action an encroachment on the park.

The park is situated near St Nos 46 and 7. People of the area have been demanding of the FGEHA to cancel the allotment.

When contacted, the FGEHA spokesperson Nasir Mahmood on Friday confirmed to Dawn that the authority had approved the mosque in the park.

Residents move court against FGEHA for allotting plot

He said after the approval by FGEHA board, land was allotted for construction of the mosque.

Asked under which law the FGEHA had allotted the park’s land for the mosque, he said: “Our planning wing placed the summary before the board after completing all legal formalities, and the board approved the summary and issued an allotment letter,” he said.

The spokesperson said in the past too there was a mosque at that place which was demolished by the authority.

“We issued conditional allotment and possession letters linking them with the court decision,” he said.

Local residents said that the issue of mosque in the park had already been challenged in the Islamabad High Court which would take up the case in the third week of January.

A resident, who lives in front of the park, alleged that some officials of FGEHA were hands in glove with the operators of the mosque and helped them get a plot allotted in the public park for the mosque.

“We demand immediate cancellation of the allotment letter and a proper inquiry against the FGEHA board for allotting the plot inside the park,” he said.

All sectors in Islamabad, whether they were developed by Capital Development Authority (CDA) or FGEHA, have proper plots for mosques.

In various areas of Islamabad, there are a large number of unauthorised mosques, which are built on greenbelts and rights of ways of roads without getting any approval, but the said mosque is unique as it has the approval of the authority.

In 2018, the National Accountability Bureau also started a probe against the then housing minister, managing director Pakistan Housing Foundation and others in a scam related to alleged allotment of plots for mosque in sectors and schemes of the housing ministry.

A survey conducted in 2017 by CDA and the capital administration revealed that there were 374 religious seminaries in Islamabad, most of them unregistered and some of them built on greenbelts as well.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2022