ISLAMABAD: Bahria Town, one of Pakistan’s largest real estate developers owned by property tycoon Malik Riaz, is building the world’s third largest mosque in the southern port-city of Karachi, the developer said on its website.
“Masjid-al-Haram (Grand Mosque) in Makkah and Masjid-e-Nabvi (Prophet’s Mosque) in Medina are the two biggest Masjids in the world. There can be no Masjid holier than these, thus respecting their sanctity, the third largest Masjid will be built in Bahria Town, Karachi,” Bahria Town said in a statement, and added that the proposed design had the capacity to accommodate 800,000 worshippers at a time.
The mosque is being designed in line with Islamic and Mughal style architecture.
“The mosque will have the best Islamic research centre, Islamic museum, Islamic cultural centre and an international university. Furthermore, the university also has an amazing thermal powerhouse, state-of-the-art air conditioning and water supply system,” the statement read.
Previously, Bahria Town had built Grand Jamia Masjid in Lahore in 2014, which clocked in as the world’s seventh largest mosque and Pakistan’s biggest, with the capacity to accommodate 70,000 worshippers in total and an indoor capacity of 25,000.
In contrast, Pakistan’s second largest mosque, the iconic Mughal-era Badshahi mosque can accommodate 56,000 people with an indoor capacity of only 10,000 worshippers.