Church in the World

Judge rules in favour of Christians

Pakistan

Abigail Frymann 10 February 2007

A high Court judge has rejected a petition by Muslim extremists and declared that the reconstruction of a church should be allowed to continue on the grounds that Muslims are permitted to build mosques in Christian countries, writes Abigail Frymann.

Muslim groups held two demonstrations in front of the Peshawar Press Club early last month against the rebuilding of the church. Representing a larger group of Muslims, two students at the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Agricultural College, Salahuddin Ahmad and Murtaza Ali, filed the petition claiming that the reconstruction of a church building on the campus it shared with Peshawar University was a violation of university rules.

But Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan of the Peshawar High Court rejected the petition and asked the students' lawyers why they had been trying to portray Islam as a religion that was adverse to religious freedom for minorities.

Fr Robert McCulloch, an Australian Columban priest in Hyderabad, told The Tablet: "This is very good news for Christians in Pakistan."

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