Pakistan’s supreme court orders to rebuild Hindu temple

By NewsGram Staff Writer

Islamabad: Pakistan's apex court has ordered that a renowned architect be appointed to rebuild a Hindu temple in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Karak district.

The Dawn reported online, that a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja asked the PML-N MNA from Tharparkar, Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, KP Home Secretary Arbab Mohammad Arif and Karak Deputy Commissioner (DC) Shoaib Jadoon to sit together and come up with a plan to rebuild the Shri Paramhans Ji Maharaj's Samadhi in Teri village of Karak district.

The chief justice said the order must not be defied and should be implemented at all cost. Jadoon assured the court that its earlier order about restoration of the temple had been carried out and a boundary wall had been built around it. The DC submitted photographs to substantiate his claim.

"We have also given a right of way to reach the Samadhi through the house of Maulvi Iftikharuddin who was earlier in possession of the temple," the DC explained.

But the court declared that the efforts put in by the provincial administration were not enough and proposed construction of a new building instead of just erecting boundary walls.

The surrounding walls will spoil the area, observed the chief justice, recalling how a temple in Shahalmi Market, Lahore, was reconstructed by architect Kamil Khan, who had a clear understanding of architectural heritage and had provided free consultancy to rebuild the temple.

The chief justice said the court could ask the architect to conserve the Karak temple. The next hearing has been scheduled for September 7.

The shrine and temple were built at the place where a Hindu notable, Shri Paramhans, died in 1919 and was buried. His followers visited the temple frequently till 1997 to pay respects but some fanatics dismantled the temple.

Followers of Shri Paramhans tried to rebuild the temple but the land was allegedly under occupation of a local mufti, Iftikharuddin.

With inputs from IANS