Daily Times

Lahore: It has been five years since the residents of Joseph Colony suffered their worst nightmare when a mob attacked their houses over a blasphemy allegation.

In search of safety, dozens of families in the Christian majority neighbourhood in Badami Bagh area of PP-145 Lahore II (old PP-138) had left their houses unattended that night, returning later to find debris left from burnt down concrete, furniture and their other belongings. Among their possessions burnt that night were also property deeds establishing their ownership of the houses, transferred to them by the provincial government.

At least 125 houses were burnt down, according to the official count. “Many among them have yet to regain property documents,” Shaan Tariq, a resident registered to vote in NA-125 and PP-145, tells Daily Times.

He says several residents have wanted to move out of the colony in the wake of the March 2013 incident, however, they have been unable to do so because of lack proper documentation.

Property deeds had been prepared for all houses but could not be delivered to the residents because of administrative delays. Now, the election campaign is underway and the matter will be resolved after the election

Ghazali Saleem Butt
The PMLN MPA from the constituency from 2013 to 2018 who is again contesting on the party’s ticket

He laments that no candidates listen to the Christian residents of the colony because the minority community don’t matter in the larger electoral calculus. Regarding the minority representatives on reserved seats, he says, “They’re answerable to their parties, not to voters or the community.”

After the March 2013 incident, the federal and provincial governments had arranged funds for reconstruction of houses burnt down in the colony. Each family was given Rs500,000 to rebuild their house.

Pervaiz Bhatti, a union council chairman in the colony, tells that [Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president] Shehbaz Sharif had promised to get the property deeds issued to all the residents, but no progress has taken place so far. He says Christian members of the Parliament on reserved seats didn’t pay much heed to the requests either.

“I have left both the old parties,” says Sughra Bibi, an elderly resident, referring to the PML-N and Pakistan Peoples Party. She says she is willing to give a third party a chance ‘if they promise to get us the registries of our homes’.

Ghazali Saleem Butt, the PMLN MPA from the constituency from 2013 to 2018 who is again contesting on the party’s ticket, says that property deeds had been prepared for all houses in the colony but it could not be delivered to the residents because of some administrative delays. Now, he says, the election campaign was underway and the matter would be resolved after the election.

However, residents who spoke to say that the MPA has been offering the same explanation since 2013. They also lament that when the MPA was in office, he avoided them and his staff wouldn’t listen to them either.

Speaking to , Wajid Azeem, PTI’s candidate for PP-145, says he has yet to visit the constituency.

Similarly, former MNA Malik Riaz, a candidate for the NA seat on PML-N ticket, has yet to visit the area despite having begun his campaign trail.

Published in Daily Times, July 8^th 2018.