‘Illegal occupation’ of Karachi’s Association hostel condemned
Monday 20 Apr 2009
By Dan Wooding and Sheraz Khurram Khan
Sunday, April 19, 2009
KARACHI, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- Hundreds of Christian residents of Pakistan’s metropolitan city of Karachi are planning to stage a protest demonstration against the "illegal occupation" of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) hostel in Karachi by influential Muslim politicians and a possible selling of the entire premises sprawling over 398,000 square feet.
Michael Javaid, a former member of the Sindh Provincial Assembly is due to lead the Monday protest demonstration outside the Karachi press club on Monday, April 20.
The YMCA was set up in the heart of Karachi in front of the Governor's House in 1913. ANS has learned that the association was registered under the Social Welfare Authority in 1964.
Javaid confided in ANS that politicians started interfering in the YMCA affairs after local Christians failed to arrive on a consensus as to who should run it.
Alarmed by the corruption, embezzlement and mismanagement by the Muslim politicians, he said, Sadiq Daniel, the Bishop of the Church of Pakistan, informed the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, whose influence, he said, ended the illegal occupation, "but only for a while."
He alleged that Christian administrators of the YMCA were expelled on account of embezzlement of the YMCA funds.
Wrangling among Christians vying for control of the YMCA, he said, led to the pending of the case in the Sindh High Court for five years.
Each of the four parties all wanted the authority to run the YMCA to be vested in them.
The court did not see any of them fit to run the YMCA in its January 1, 2009 verdict and instead appointed a Mr. Moinuddin, the registrar of Sindh High Court, as administrator of the YMCA.
“Its (appointment of Mr. Moinuddin) has made no difference as the hostel of the YMCA continues to be illegally occupied,” he alleged.
Michael disclosed that only two days ago the local “Anti Car Lifting Cell” used the playground of the YMCA-run school for parking offenders’ cars and motorbikes.
The playground, where healing crusades were once held one, is now being used by Muslims as a venue for festivals of sorts, he regretted.
“The hostel has become a haven for influential politicians and even armed criminals who do not even pay a penny to the YMCA,” he claimed.
Commenting on the plight of the YMCA school, he said its condition has deteriorated over the years due to non payment of utility bills and owing to absence of its upkeep.
He feared that the YMCA stood the risk of being sold out adding “as one bidder wants to buy it for 20 billion Pakistani rupees.”
He alleged that “land mafia” is also trying to sell the YMCA property in Murree.
Asked if the situation of the YMCA Lahore was any different, Michael Javaid said that people who are responsible for illegal occupation of the YMCA Karachi "are doing the same in Lahore and elsewhere."
He said those in the occupation of the YMCA hostel in Karachi want to build a mosque on the YMCA premises in a bid to give “legitimacy” to their illegal stay.
“If our demands are not heeded after the protest, the Christians will make a forcible entry into the YMCA premises to evict the illegal occupants,” warned Michael Javaid, adding that government would be responsible in case of any eventuality.
He appealed to the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, and Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, to ensure that the YMCA campus is “purged of all illegal occupants.”
