Hundreds of Christians held a protest demonstration against the Punjab government and Minorities Minister Kamran Michael for alleged illegal demolition and occupation of their community's two-acre property, 'Gosha-e-Aman' situated on Allama Iqbal Road, Garhi Shahu, on Monday.Bishop of Lahore Alexander John Malik, The ArchBishop of Lahore Catholic Church Sabestian Shah, PPP MPA Pervaiz Rafiq, PML-Q MPA Shehzad Elahi, Najmi Saleem, civil society activists and hundreds of Christians took part in the protest.
The protesters were holding banners inscribed with slogans such as, 'Down with Kamran Michael', 'Stop Violence against Christianity', etc. The protesters also condemned Michael for supporting and defending the government's "evil act".
Addressing the protesters, Alexander John Malik asked Michael to return the land to the community at the earliest, saying that otherwise the protests would continue and spread to other parts of the country as well.
He said the government had claimed that they got the land vacated from illegal occupants and asked who from Christian community had requested for the vacation. He said the Christian community "knew how to protect their properties very well".
PPP MPA Pervaiz Rafiq, while talking to Daily Times, said that by demolishing the property and illegally occupying the land, the Punjab government had given a very negative message to the Christian community.
He said that a charitable Christian organization had purchased the property in 1887, and now surprisingly, the government was declaring that nobody owned the land.