Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to reopen Hindu temples across the country that had been foreclosed or had needed renovations due to being vintage structures.
In a statement on Wednesday, PTI Spokesperson Ahmad Jawad said this is in line with the longstanding demand of the minority Hindus that their places of worship be restored to them.
Alluding to other initiatives of the government in different sectors, the party spokesperson said that agreements have been signed for the construction of eleven wind power projects of 550 megawatts.
He said a Chinese firm will start construction of 100 million dollars state of the art hospital in Gwadar in 24 months, media reported.
The spokesperson said the government is to create a special cell for integrated planning on demand and supply of essential commodities to control their prices in order to control artificial inflation. He said Pakistan International Airlines’ monthly operational losses have reduced to 1.5 billion rupees from three billion rupees.
He said remittances have increased by 14.4 percent and textile exports by twenty percent.
The spokesperson said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is installing Digital Telemetry System on five rivers across the province for flood monitoring and forecasting.
Agencies adds: The federal government has decided to reopen over 400 temples across the country that had been foreclosed or were undergoing renovations amid vintage/vulnerable structures. When most Hindus migrated to India following the 1947 partition, many temples, as well as other lucrative properties owned by wealthy individuals, were lost to encroachment; even in places where some Hindu families stayed back, local strongmen muscled in and occupied the land.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, PTI Spokesperson Ahmad Jawad said this development is being made in line with the longstanding demand of the Hindu community that their places of worship be restored to them. It was reported in April, the process will begin with two historic shrines in Sialkot and Peshawar. Sialkot has a functioning Jagannath Temple and now the 1,000-year-old ShivalayaTeja Singh is set to be restored.
Hindus had stopped visiting the shivalaya after a mob attack during Babri mosque demolition protests in 1992. In Peshawar, the Pakistani courts had ordered reopening of the Gorakhnath Temple and it’s been declared a heritage site. From now on, two to three such historic and heritage temple complexes will be restored by the government of Pakistan every year. Earlier this year, the All-Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement conducted a survey across the country which found out that there were 428 Hindu temples at the time of Partition.
