Hundreds of graves in the 'historical' graveyard adjacent to the shrine of Hazrat Baba Bulleh Shah (RA) have been demolished to construct a recreational park. The project is being executed by Auqaf department despite a strong opposition from social and religious circles, besides devotees of the Sufi saint.
According to them, the graveyard existed when the great Sufi poet came here 249 years ago. Some weeks back, when the construction was started, people had brought out a procession and tried to ransack the Auqaf office.
District coordination officer (DCO) had then ensured the protesters that nothing of the sort would be happened. Earlier, the construction of a shopping center on this graveyard was stopped under public pressure. However, the Auqaf authorities resumed work two days ago. Under the mega shrine expansion project, a park will be constructed on the eastern side of main gate of the shrine.
The project was announced by former prime minister Mir Zaffarullah Khan Jamali during his visit to Kasur in 2001.
Uptill now, Rs 30 million have been spent on the project and is still incomplete despite the lapse of several months while the completion time of the project was two years. Under the project, 20 shops will be demolished and affected traders will get new shops of the same size on the western side of the main gate. The shops were constructed within a year but were not allocated to shopkeepers, as promised for Rs 300,000.
These shops were given to some favourites although some bidders had offered up to Rs 800,000. As the ignored shopkeepers did not let demolition of their structures, the presence of shops on both sides of the main entrance had marred the mega project.
Requesting anonymity, an Auqaf employee said that some bigwigs of the city and high-ranking officials were involved in the scandal. It is also mentionable here that Religious Peace Committee of the Shrine have been dissolved due to the rift among the government-backed district naib nazim Haji Maqsood Sabir Ansari and ARD-backed district nazim Rana Muhammad Hayat Khan.
HANGED: A killer was hanged at the District Jail Kasur. Ahmad Nawaz was awarded death sentence by sessions court for killing a man at Chakki Piara Lal Kasur City in 1999. His appeals against the conviction have been rejected by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and President Pervez Musharraf.
AWARDED: An additional district and sessions judge has awarded death sentence to convict Shakeel Ahmad in a murder case registered at police station Khudian.
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