Evacuee Trust Property Board
Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), established in 1960, is a statutory board of the Government of Pakistan, which administers evacuee properties and shrines of Hindus and Sikhs attached to religious, charitable or educational trusts left behind by Hindus & Sikhs who migrated to India after 1947 partition of India. ETPB is responsible for managing sacred Hindu and Sikh shrines but provides no jobs to Hindus. 20% or 20,000 acres of ETPB's Hindu and Sikh farm land was under illegal occupation by the powerful people and further thousands of acres of land was "hidden" (missing) from the ETPB records due to the corrupt employees, while no Hindus are employed by ETPB to manage their own land and shrines. ETPB, mired in mismanagement, was caught in large scams of illegally recruiting 800 (Muslims/non-Hindu) employees and illegally selling Rs.5 billion worth of ETPB land (of Hindus and Sikhs shrines).
In 1990s nearly 1000 Hindu temples were targeted by the frenzied Islamist in Pakistan for destruction. Out of Pakistan's 428 Hindu temples under ETPB in Pakistan only 26 survive today and they remain neglected by the ETPB which controls those. ETPB failed to take any action to prevent destruction of temples it is tasked to protect. Temples were sold by ETPB against the section 20 and 36 of law that prohibits sales or demolition of religious temples and later demolished with the connivance of the corrupt ETPB. Contrastingly, to protect Muslims's interest Pakistan has strict blasphemy laws and over 62 people have been murdered with the mere allegation of blasphemy against Islam, where accused are commonly subject to the harassment, threats, attacks and rioting, and blasphemy against Islam is a tool that "is overwhelmingly being used to persecute religious minorities and settle personal vendettas. Hindus have to hide their identity, adopt muslim names and mannerism to survive and live in the fear while hundreds of temples have been vandalized or demolished.
Hindu and Sikh properties
The board controls and manages 109,404 acres of agricultural land and 46,499 of built-up urban sub-units of Hindus and Sikhs in accordance with two schemes namely, “Scheme for the Lease of Evacuee Trust Agricultural Land, 1975” and "Schemes for the Management and Disposal of Urban Evacuee Trust Properties, 1977.
ETPB runs the Dyal Singh Trust Library, Janki Devi Jamiat Singh hospital and 7 health centers. ETPB is custodian of the minorities shrines of Hindus and Sikhs, including Hinglaj Mata and Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and more. ETPB is also allied with several other institutes, namely Pakistan Model Educational Institutions Foundation, Ayesha Sadiqa Degree College, Nawaz Sharif Trust Model, Trust Model Public High School, MBBS Trust Model Girls Higher Secondary School and Dr. Mateen Fatima Trust model School.
Pakistan annually allows 800 Hindus and 7,500 Sikhs yatris from other nations. Hindus can only visit Shahdani Darbar (400 pilgrims for 10 days in Nov-Dec) and Katas Raj Temples (200 pilgrims for five days in Feb-Mar and October). Sikhs can visit Gurdwara Panja Sahib (3000 pilgrims on Baisakhi), Nankana Sahib (3000 pilgrims on Guru Nanak's birthday), Samadhi of Ranjit Singh (500 pilgrims on Maharaja Ranjit Singh's death anniversary) and Guru Arjan Dev's martyrdom day (1000 pilgrims). Guru Arjan was arrested under the orders of the mughal emperor Jahangir and asked to convert to Islam, and he was tortured and executed in 1606 CE after he refused to convert to Islam (from Jahangir's Memoirs, Jahangirnama 27b-28a, translated by Wheeler M. Thackston).
