KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly was informed on Wednesday that no worship place belonging to any minority faith had been illegally occupied across the province and the minorities` affairs ministry was vigilant to foil any such attempt if made by land grabbers in future.

Replying to a question asked by Pakistan Muslim League-Functional MPA Nusrat Saher Abbasi during the Sindh Assembly`s Question Hour, Dr Khatumal Jeewan, special assistant to the chief minister for minority affairs, said no temple in the province had been occupied illegally byland grabbers orinnuentialpersons.

Ms Abbasi referred to certain media reports concerning alleged encroachment on certain churches in Karachi, however, the house was told that not a single church or temple had been occupied by unauthorised persons.

Replying to another question raised by the same member, Dr Jeewan said Rs53 million against the promised Rs100m had been released to the ministry during 201011 for welfare schemes concerning the communities practicing minority faiths.

He said a total of 35 small schemes which included the uplift or constructionof worship places or relating to welfare deeds within the community had long been completed.

`Most of those schemes related to the charity deeds and we have completed them all long ago,` he said.

Regarding a question asl(ed by Deewan Chand Chawla, the house was informed that a total of 754 non-Muslim worship places existed in Sindh of which 690 were Hindu temples, 48 churches, 15 Sikh gurdwaras and a single Zoroastrian (Parsi) fire temple located in Karachi`s South district.

There were 93 worship places in Karachi division, which included 51 temples, 33 churches and eight gurdwaras.

The figure in Hyderabad division was 179 of which 167 were temples, and 12 churches. Out of 129 worship places in Sukkur division, 127 were temples and two gurdwaras; while 181 temples, three churches and five gurdwaras were located in Larkana division forming a total of 189.

All the 164 worship places in Mirpurl(has division were temples, the house was told.

Responding to supplementary questions asked by the members, Dr Jeewan said save a few worship places none of the temples or churches were run by his ministry unlike the Auqaf department which ran shrines, etc.He said the ministry maintained or repaired those places after getting such requests from the communities and in certain cases new temples or churches were constructed on demand of population livingin certain areas.

Responding to another supplementary question regarding whether the recent development work in Clifton had damaged the centuries-old Shri Ratneswar Mahadev temple, Dr Jeewan referred to a technical committee, which the provincial government had formed to assess such dangers, saying the technical committee found no harm to the temple.

`The technical committee submitted a report to the government in which it said the development work had not caused any damage to the Clifton temple,` he said.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker Kamran Akhtar asked about any recruitment during the current fiscal in the minorities` affairs ministry, to which Dr Jeewan said so far his ministry had advertised for some posts, but no recruitment had been made so far.

Mr Akhtar demanded that the ministry of minorities` affairs be renamed as it gave the impression that non-Muslim communities had lesser status, which was against the Constitution that gave equal status to allPakistanis.