Ahlul Bayt News Agency (ABNA.ir), ISLAMABAD: It is all dark and seemingly the end of good old days for the 87 Auqaf-administered Masjids in the Pakistani federal capital of Islamabad.
Gas and electricity supplies have been cut off to them for not paying the bills for 30 years. Neither the Auqaf department nor the local administration have the Rs25m that the mosques have accumulated in unpaid electricity bills alone. Official sources said here yesterday that Islamabad’s deputy commissioner has written to the chief commissioner to approach the interior ministry to arrange the funds from the finance ministry.
There are another 237 mosques in the city outside the control of the Auqaf Department. They also feel the pinch of rising utility bills but charity comes handy to them.
A source in the local administration said that since 1980 the Auqaf-run mosques had been basking under the privileges extended to them by the military regime of late Gen Ziaul Haq. But patronage started running thin with the rise of financial difficulties of the subsequent governments. Things came to such a pass that commercial institutions now find it difficult to accept government’s requests to extend concessions. As their financial situation got worse, the utility companies started disconnecting supplies to hangers-on.
That put the Auqaf-run mosques in discomfort, including such hot spots as the Lal Masjid, Masjid-i-Shuhada at Aabpara and the G-9 Masjid. It compelled some of the mosques to start paying at least the current bills. The local administration tried to persuade the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) to restore the supply and buy time and favourable terms for paying the arrears. But the supply was restored for short periods only.
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