LAHORE – The Supreme Court has ordered a forensic audit of the use of ‘Chanda’ (donations) collected at different shrines across Punjab.
Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mian Saqib Nisar issued the order on Sunday while hearing the case pertaining to the use of donations at the apex court’s Lahore registry.
Addressing the Auqaf officials, the CJP remarked that people donate their hard-earned money to shrines but ‘you are dispensing it out without any proper usage.
During the hearing, the prosecutor informed the court that Rs 820 million were collected at shrines in Punjab, following which the top judge remarked that the money should be used for providing better facilities to visitors.
‘The donation money was spent on paying salaries and pensions to the employees of the shrines,’ replied the prosecutor.
The top judge inquired who was the minister of Auqaf to which he was informed that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government had not yet appointed any minister.
The CJP asked the Aukaf secretary about his last visit to the Data Darbar shrine to which the secretary replied that he had visited the place six days ago and they were looking into different issues.
Rejecting the official report, the CJP ordered the forensic audit of donations spending.
JIT for Investigating theft of Nalain Mubarak
Hearing another case, the CJP ordered the formation of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) comprising three members to probe into the alleged theft of Nalain Mubarak (shoe) of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from the gallery of Badshahi Mosque.
An application was moved by Pir S.A. Jafri questioning inefficiency of the government authorities to fix responsibility.
The top judge was not satisfied at the report submitted by the Auqaf Department and rejected it.
As the Secretary Auqaf Zulifqar Ali Ghuman and other officials appeared before the court, the CJP questioned the authorities was there anything valuable than the shoe of the Prophet which you people could not protect.
10 investigations had been carried out till today but nothing could be found, admitted the legal counsel for Auqaf.
Additional advocate general told the court that the relic had been taken to Brunei in 2001 for displaying it in an exhibition but after that it was placed in Badshahi Mosque.
Later, some visitors revealed in 2002 that the relic had been missing from its actual place.
Petitioner Pir Jafri had also been filing several petitions at district and sessions court level in past seeking the recovery of the relic. The petitioner had sought a case against 94 respondents, including around 40 police officials, for failing to recover the relic which was stolen in 2002.
During an earlier investigation in 2014, Rangers Deputy Superintendent Muhammad Sarwar, Lance Naik Noshad Khan and others said the relic was taken to Brunei under the supervision of Captain Jawad Cheema in 2001.
