KARACHI: The power that religious
zealots have in Pakistan is indeed amazing. To build mosques and madrassas,
they have occupied not only state land (as in Block 5 of Clifton, Karachi), but
also private plots in Block 6 of PECHS. Four years ago, I moved into a new
building managed by the Defence Housing Authority, and even though there is a
magnificent mosque just five minutes’ walk away, some residents decided to
build a mosque in the children’s garden and play area in the compound.
The reason given was that the imam of the mosque outside the
building is one of those whose beliefs are a bit different from those of the
drivers who work in our building and because of this, the drivers had to go to
a mosque which is three kilometres away, which wasted a lot of petrol. Even
though only about 20 or 30 people use the mosque regularly, they occupied more
space this Ramazan, ostensibly to accommodate more worshippers but actually to
house a madrassa. The children in our apartment complex have been deprived of
most of their playing area.
Shakir Lakhani
Published
in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2013.
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