They should put these thieves in jail instead of appeasing them.
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\09\08\story_8-9-2010_pg7_16
Mosque, madrassa built on private land against court orders
- Real landowner offered no compensation from Ring Road officials
By Asad Kharal
LAHORE: Ayesha Sehgal, the owner of a 14-kanal land in Chachuwali village on Bedian Road, has been left with little options to recover her property after some clerics have built a mosque and madrassa on her land.
Ayesha moved a court, which ordered that the land be handed over back to the owner, but the clerics blatantly ignored the court orders. As a result, the owner again moved the court which sentenced madrassa manager Qari Muhammad Idrees to six years’ rigorous imprisonment and Rs 20,000 fine, another Muhammad Talha to four years’ rigorous imprisonment and Rs 10,000 fine and Muhammad Anees to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and Rs 5,000 fine.
The process to revert the land to its owner was still to be completed when it came to the notice of clerics that the mosque and madrassa had come in the purview of the Ring Road project. But they refused to vacate the madrassa and manhandled the Ring Road officials. However, after negotiations, the Ring Road authorities agreed to give Rs 4 million, a two-kanal plot and Rs 30,000 per month to clerics as compensation to acquire the land. The real owner of the land had never been paid anything by the Ring Road authorities.
Still Ayesha had possession of a building adjacent to the madrassa, but the clerics forcibly occupied it on August 3 and installed private guards there.
The Burki police has registered a case against Hafiz Abdul Haq, Qari Nafees, Qari Anees, Qari Imran, Sher Muhammad and 10 others for occupying the private property illegally, but none of them had been arrested so far. Ironically, Qari Talha, who was sentenced to four years’ rigorous imprisonment, has never been arrested. A court has declared him a proclaimed offender, but he has been seen in his area and police never dared arrest him.
According to reports, clerics have sold some portion of the property, and again the court declared the sale illegal, but it seems Ayesha will have to go a long way to get her property back.
The guards and madrassa students, who have been deployed at the land to foil any attempt to recover the land can be a harbinger of a big tragedy unless the government authorities acted in the interest of the law.