Civil Court Murree Orders Returning of Abused Church Land to Church

Murree, Pakistan: February 25, 2010, (PCTV Newsdesk)

Holy Trinity Church, Murree, a congregation of Church of Pakistan on the stress and desire of its congregation,few years back, filed a case against the Tehsil Municipal Administration Murree about Church adjacent lawn now knew as Kanaan Park,which is a legal extended Church property and confiscated by the local government. Petition prayed that this piece of land should be given back toChurch as it had been ruined and dishonored by the local government by rentingit to the vendors and other commercial purposes. Mr. Rafiq Masih Bhatti and hisfamily who happens to be the only permanent family of Holy Trinity ChurchMurree and serving the Church form decades as its sole four season congregation,remained very much concerned and active before local Press, Civil Society ofMurree and Church leadership about this piece of land and at last becometriumphant in having it back from by a court judgment pronounced on Monday 22ndFebruary 2010.

Our Special correspondent states that  he has learnt that Mr. Bhatti and his familymembers remained under threats by some of the radical Muslims who were not infavour of its return and tried to stop Mr. Bhatti and his family members from professingand fighting for the return of this land. They desired that this land shouldcontinue serving visitors in terms of entertainment and pleasure of thetourists who come to spend holidays in Murree. Mr. Bhatti said that as he andhis family are the only resident members of Church and rest of the congregationwhether come for few years on the basis of their job deployment or come asvisitor to Murree, therefore he use to feel more embarrassed than anybody elsewhen he use to see this land disgraced and misused as Kanan Park especiallywhen noise use to disturb the worship in Church edifice.  He said that He is thankful to the Lord Godand Prause Him that on Monday 22nd February 2010, the Civil Court Murreedeclared and ordered the Tehsil Municipal Administration Murree to vacate andremove the commercial stalls and cabins from Canaan Parkand hand over the lawn to its original owner, the Church. It is notable here thatthis Church property had been illegally used by the Tehsil Municipal Authorityfor more than 50 years for commercial purposes.