ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea seeking withdraw of its earlier orders for demolishing the Madina Mosque built illegally over an encroached land at Tariq Road Karachi.

The plea was moved by Attorney General for Pakistan Khalid Jawed Khan stating that the demolition orders were leading to a ‘religious tension’. The Attorney General requested the court to review its Dec 28, 2021 order calling for razing a place of worship, as several questions were being raised over it.

He said it was the duty of the state to provide land for the mosque, however requested to the court to withdraw its order. “We ourselves had seen a public park on the land, where the mosque was built”, the chief justice noted. He, however, said the Sindh government could allocate an alternative place for the mosque.

Justice Qazi Amin Ahmed pointed out that lands were grabbing on the name of religion. The chief justice said the court could not take back its orders, however, it could only pass an order that the mosque should not be razed until a new place was allocated for it. “Islam does not allow constructing mosques on encroached lands” Justice Qazi Amin observed. Meanwhile, the court directed the Sindh government to furnish a report over the matter in three weeks and adjourned the proceedings until January 13.

On December 28, 2021, a Supreme Court bench headed by chief justice Gulzar Ahmed at Karachi Registry had ordered the Karachi administrator to ensure removal of the Madina Mosque and other encroachments in a week and restore the land as a park. After this order of the apex court, the religious circles showed great resentment and appealed the apex court to withdraw its order calling for razing the Madina Mosque.