JUI-F volunteers gather at Peshawar centre over demolition fears

PESHAWAR: Volunteers of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) gathered around the party's Mufti Mehmood Centre in Peshawar after reports that the district administration might demolish the building, Express News reported. The report did not describe any demolition notice or order issued by the administration.

Maulana Ahmad Darwesh, who is in charge of the centre, said the building's map had been formally approved by the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) and questioned how the district administration could act against it. "We got this building's map approved: then how will the district administration conduct an operation against it?" Express News quoted him as saying. He asked why the party had not been told of any problem at the time the map was passed.

Former nazim Zubair Ali was present with the JUI-F volunteers, according to the report.

Darwesh said businesses were being taken away from people and that poor traders stood to lose crores of rupees.

He said party office-bearers and workers were sitting at the site and invited the district administration to come and see the position for itself, adding that the party had not committed any violation. The road that is closed, he said, was shut by the government for security reasons.

No official from the district administration or the PDA was quoted in the report, and no date or reason for an expected operation was given. It was not clear from the reports what action, if any, the authorities had announced.

JUI-F is one of Pakistan's main religio-political parties and has a long organisational presence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with Peshawar among the centres of its activity. The Mufti Mehmood Centre is one of its properties in the provincial capital.

The reports carried no account of the administration's position on the building, or of any earlier correspondence between the party and the district authorities over it.