Four years ago, Christian businessman Henry Gill wanted to find a way to protect Christians in Pakistan from abuse and violence.

He then decided to build one of the world’s biggest crosses in the most unlikely places.

“I said, ‘I am going to build a big cross, higher than any in the world, in a Muslim country,’ ” 58-year-old Gill told The Washington Post. “It will be a symbol of God, and everybody who sees this will be worry-free.”

The 14-storey cross is nearly complete in the heart of Karachi.

The cross is being built at the entrance to Karachi’s largest Christian cemetery: Gora Qabristan, towering over thousands of tombstones that are often vandalized. Once the cross looms over such acts of disrespect, Gill hopes it will convince members of Pakistan’s persecuted Christian minority that someday their lives will get better.

“I want Christian people to see it and decide to stay here,” said Gill, who started the project about a year ago.

The cross is 140 feet tall and includes a 42-foot crosspiece. It isn’t the world’s tallest; that distinction is claimed by the Great Cross in St. Augustine, Fla., which is about 208 feet tall, although the Millennium Cross in Macedonia is said to tower 217 feet above ground. Crosses approaching 200 feet also have been constructed in Illinois, Louisiana and Texas.

However, Gill says that the cross will be the largest in Asia.

“The challenges facing Christians in Pakistan, many of whom live in slums and are relegated to working menial jobs, are particularly acute in rural areas. That has driven more of them to seek security and support in Karachi,” said Bishop Sadiq Daniel, the leader of the Church of Pakistan in Sindh.

“About 1 million of Karachi’s estimated 22 million inhabitants are Christian,” the Protestant leader said.

But Gill said that “every few weeks” he hears from Christians who plan to move out of Karachi because of threats. The signs of that abuse are obvious at the cemetery.

“Look, someone just came and broke this statue of the Virgin Mary,” Gill said recently, as he bent over a shattered statue marking the grave of someone who died in 1959.

He said he hopes the cross encourages more Christians to remain in Pakistan, perhaps even achieving the same success that his family found.

When the construction began last year, Gill didn’t inform the workers what they were working on. When the cross became apparent, about 20 Muslim workers quit in protest.

But today, Gill noted, Muslims and Christians are working together to complete the project.

One Muslim man, Mohammad Ali, works on the cross 14 hours a day, seven days a week. Ali referred to the cross as a “work of God” and said he is volunteering out of loyalty to the Gill family.

“Henry has supported me well over the years, helping with the birth of my [seven] children, with medicine, their education, so I don’t need a daily wage,” said Ali, 40.

As for the cross, Gill called it “bulletproof,” noting that it sits on a 20-foot underground base. “Tons and tons of steel, iron and cement,” he said as he looked up toward the top of the structure.

“If anyone tries to hit this cross, they will not succeed.”

Sometime later this year, after the cross is polished and a lighting system is installed, Gill plans to hold a large celebration to inaugurate it. He said he wants to invite Pope Francis, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Queen Elizabeth II of England and former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“But I don’t know if they will come,” he added.

He said he is confident, however, that Pakistan’s beleaguered Christians will show up.

“Upon seeing it, they are going to appreciate this job,” Gill said.

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Superstar Salman Khan was granted bail on Wednesday, barely three hours after he was convicted in the 2002 hit-and-run case. Before nightfall, he was back at Galaxy Apartments.

So how did the superstar return home the same day he was convicted of culpable homicide and sentenced to five years in jail? Legal experts say there were two factors responsible — Khan seems to have gone to court prepared with a course of action in case he was convicted; and, as soon as he was convicted, he hired the best he could find, Harish Salve, who has been described as the most expensive lawyer in India.

While most convicts do not file appeals until they have received a copy of the conviction order and prepared their grounds for appeal, Salve filed one based on the operative parts of the order that had been released to his client.

Arguing in the high court, he said: “We have not received the copy of the order. We have attached the operative part.”

Salve also said the grounds in the appeal were speculative grounds since they do not have the order, and therefore sought interim relief till Friday.

Read | Salman Khan verdict: How the hit-and-run case unfolded

Asked for his comment on the proceedings, special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said it was not a first-time occurrence, but there was no illegality in it. “Normally we do not find the convict approaching the HC and asking for bail on the very same day. This shows that Salman had contemplated his next course of action if the verdict were to go against him,” Nikam said.

Nikam further added, “In a similar case of celebrity accused, the Aurangabad bench of Mumbai high court had cancelled the bail order of Gulabrao Deokar, former Maharashtra minister, but he approached the Supreme Court on the next day by filing a petition in SC and obtained a stay on the order of cancellation of bail.”

“The celebrity accused is always ready with all the weapons and this is exactly what Salman has done. Salman got the bail on technical grounds. A normal man does not think of such things but that does not mean it cannot happen. How can a common man hire such renowned lawyers at the last moment?” he added.

Added advocate Sharif Shaikh: “This is a celebrity case. If a layman had been convicted, he would not have been in a position to approach the high court so quickly. Even if he approached the HC, the court would not consider it in normal circumstances.”

Advocate Amin Solkar also felt there were probably mitigating circumstances that prompted the court to consider the application so quickly.

“It is a special case and there have to be special circumstances to grant such relief,” he said. “There must have been special circumstances stated by the defence.”

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