Panel informed: Ministry collects all record related to ETPB
ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Religious Affairs has collected all the record related to the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) as per the directions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, a parliamentary panel was informed Wednesday.
Briefing the Senate standing Committee on Religious Affairs meeting which was held here under the chairmanship of Senator Atta Ur Rehman, additional secretary Ministry of Religious Affairs informed the panel that during the past three years, the ministry has gathered all the record related to ETPB properties, adding that some of the properties have gone to the Punjab government but the ministry has filed court cases against them.
The additional secretary said that as per the Supreme Court of Pakistan directions, the ministry has successfully evacuated various properties under ETPB and rents of these properties have also been revised as a result, millions of rupees in additional revenue will be generated. He said that these properties are of various nature including some were left behind by the non-Muslims during the creation of Pakistan and India and the owners of the some properties had handed over their belonging to different trusts at that time.
Senator Gurdeep Singh said that the properties belonging to Hindus and Sikhs communities should be handed over to the families of people belonging to these communities or these properties should be used for building residential building for the people of these communities like Katas Raj and Nankana Sahib to facilitate the religious pilgrimage during different religious festivals. Responding to Senator Gurdeep Singh, the additional secretary Ministry of Religious Affairs said that revenue generated from all these properties is being spent on the welfare of these communities for instance the government has built additional 100 rooms at Nankana sahib and 36 at Katas Raj.
He shared that a modern 36-room residential facility adjacent to the Katas Raj Temples has been constructed at a cost of Rs190million. This ensures that Hindu pilgrims, both from within Pakistan and abroad, including India, can stay comfortably with all necessary amenities.
In addition to the discussion on the private bill titled, “Muslim Family Law (Amendment) Bill, 2024” presented by Senator Syed Ali Zafar in the Senate on September 2, 2024, the alleged leak of the Hajj screening test paper for Hajj operation 2025 was reviewed in detail.
Senator Syed Ali Zafar suggested that the committee should ask the ministry to provide the audit report of the expenditure and income of the ETPB as well as the details of the land owned by the ETPB. He also asked about the details of the pending court cases and the rules renting out the buildings of ETPB. Furthermore, the committee asked the ministry to provide the details of the properties which have been compiled over the past three years.
Senator Dinesh Kumar said that the details of the last 10 years of income and expenses of the province should be obtained. Get all the details like how much income has been generated in the last five years, how much has been increased, and how much income will be generated in the next five years. Balochistan province and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also have many religious places of worship of the non-Muslim community, and religious tourism can be promoted by investing in them.
The committee while deliberating on the Muslim Family Law Amendment Bill 2024 introduced by Senator Ali Zafar, the mover said that there was a lot of discussion on this bill in the previous meeting and the committee’s decision was to get an opinion on this bill from the Council of Islamic Ideology and the Ministry of Law as well as the committee should also get briefing on the topic from the top Islamic scholars of different countries.
He said that the opinion of the Council of Islamic Ideology has come but the opinion of the Ministry of Law has not yet been received, their opinion should also be obtained. Muslim scholars of different countries are ready to give a briefing. The meeting of the committee can be called on any day at noon and a briefing can be obtained from them. Senator Kamran Murtaza said that marriage is a contract, by making this bill difficult, the situation of European countries should not be created. Women have been given a share in our Sharia.
Senator Afnanullah Khan also said that the West has destroyed its family system by doing such experiments. In our country, even the original rights holders do not get their rights.
Officials of the Ministry of Religious Affairs told the committee that the Council of Islamic Ideology disagreed with the concept of matrimonial property and the contents of the said bill because this concept does not exist in the Islamic Sharia rules, so the husband is not financially responsible for anything for the wife in case of divorce. Except the right to pay dowry (if pending) and maintenance and accommodation during Iddat.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025