The Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) supremo said, “Pakistan was created in the name of Islam. We support the rights of religious minorities but construction of a new temple in its capital is not only against the spirit of Islam, but also an insult to Riayasat-e-Madina.”
The PML-Q leader said that during his tenure as Punjab chief minister, the existing temples were renovated. “I had got Katas Raj Temple repaired. During my tenure, for the first time in the budget funds were allocated for repairs of churches as well,” he added.
Last week, Prime Minister Imran Khan had approved a grant of Rs100 million for the construction of the first Hindu temple in the federal capital.
The request for the grant of the funds was made by Minister for Religious Affairs Pir Noorul Haq Qadri during a meeting with the prime minister.
The Hindu Panchayat Islamabad will manage the temple – Shri Krishna Mandir. “A large number of people from various parts of the country, including Balochistan and Sindh, have shifted to Islamabad, mainly because of security issues in those areas. Now when we have families here, there is a need for a crematorium, a place for collective prayers and marriage ceremonies,” Mahesh Chaudhry, the Panchayat’s president said.
Earlier, Jamia Ashrafia had termed the construction of the temple as un-Islamic and issued a fatwa (religious decree). According to Mufti Ziauddin of the seminary’s Lahore chapter, it is Islamic to retain and maintain the already existing places of worship of the minorities, so they can fulfill the religious obligations.
“However, in an Islamic state, permitting the minorities to build new places of worship or to rebuild an abandoned place of worship is un-Islamic as it is equivalent to aiding in a bad deed, which isn’t permissible,” he added.
A number of Religious scholar have reacted to the federal government’s decision to maintain interfaith harmony in Pakistan, terming it ‘un-Islamic’ and against the principles of Islam.
Recently Dean of Islamic Studies at University of the Punjab, Professor Hammad Lakhvi, said: “In an Islamic state, non-Muslims can renovate existing places of worship but not build new ones. To help them build new place of worship is to help propagate disbelief. A Muslim would rather die than assist disbelief.”
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