Faisal Mosque not a ‘gift’ by Saudi Arabia

ISLAMABAD: Sometimes, frequent repetition of a false narration with high confidence becomes a reference of important historical facts, events and developments.

The same is happening in the case of Faisal Mosque, where masses are forced to believe that the said iconic mosque of the federal capital was fully funded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as people write and speak this false narration repeatedly without any reference or research.

An American founding father and the second president of the United States (1797-1801) John Adams said: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

However, it may be somebody’s wish to spread the falsehood that Faisal Mosque was fully funded by the Saudi government, but the official documents of the project clearly negate this false myth as only partial funding was made by the Saudi government on the directions of its King, late Shah Faisal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. In response the mosque was named after
his name.

Replaying to a written question asked by Daily Times, the Public Relations Directorate of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) also endorsed the aforementioned historical fact and informed that the project was completed in $45 million in which only $28 million was contributed by the government of Saudi Arabia while $17 million was provided by the Pakistani government in addition to the allocation of 33 acres of land for the mosque.

The project to build a mosque was conceived in 1966, when King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz visited Islamabad. An international competition for the selection of the mosque design was held in 1969 and the design of a Turkish architect Mr. Vedat Dalokay was selected by a jury appointed by the International Union of Architects.

A foundation stone was laid by King Khalid bin Abdul Aziz in 1976, but the project was started in 1978 and completed in 1988 in a period of 10 years.

The structural engineers of Faisal Mosque were R.L Lac Qurix from Paris and S. Erdolan from Turkey. The Project Manager was Muhammad Rafique Ahmed while the project was executed by contractor M/S National Construction Limited.

The ownership of the said mosque is with the CDA but the management rests with the International Islamic University Islamabad. The CDA spends millions on the renovation and maintenance of the mosque every year. The budget allocation for the year 2016-17 is Rs. 36.88 million.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a time-tested friend of Pakistan. The bilateral relationships between the two countries have a vast scope covering multiple fields of life, but the history of this cooperation should not be doctored as it is being done in the case of Faisal Mosque.