By Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI: A delegation of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Friday called on Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) chairman Jagdambika Pal and demanded immediate withdrawal of the Waqf Amendment Bill 2024.
The board leaders categorically told JPC that the government must withdraw the bill immediately if it is interested in the welfare of the Muslim community
While registering its objections to various amendments in the proposed Bill, the delegation categorically stated that the proposed Bill was a conspiracy to usurp waqf properties from Muslims.
The delegation led by its general secretary Maulana Mohammed Fazalurrahim Mujaddidi was accompanied by board’s legal committee members – M R Shamshad and advocate Fuzail Ahmed Ayubi- former minister K Rahman Khan, Maulana Abu Talib Rahmani, Maulana Matiurrahman Madani, Board’s office secretary Dr. Mohammed Waqaruddin Latifi and Bihar MLC Dr. Khalid Anwar.
In an official statement, the board said that the JPC chairman listened to their views attentively and assured that he would give full opportunity to the waqf board and various Muslim organizations to present their viewpoint before arriving at any final decision on the Bill.
The delegation members registered their objections to every amendment in the controversial Bill. “The proposed Bill has not only restricted the powers of the waqf board but empowered the district collector to take all important decisions on waqf properties,” the delegation told the JPC chairman.
The delegation also submitted that “by deleting the clause about ‘waqf by the user’, the proposed Bill has made it easy for illegal occupation of mosques, graveyards and dargahs” which would result in fake litigations and result in communal tension all over the country.
The delegation members also alleged that the government had indulged in discrimination against the Muslim community by making the appointment of non-Muslims in the Central Waqf Council and waqf boards mandatory.
“At the same time, there is no scope of appointing members of other religions in management committees of Hindu mutts, temples and Sikh gurudwaras,” the delegation members told the JPC chairman and its other members.
The board members strongly objected to delegating the authority to the collector in case of a dispute on a waqf property with the government. If interpreted, the proposed Bill has given powers to one of the parties to the dispute to decide the case against its own adversary which is against all settled laws.
The delegation members also registered their objections to a condition in the proposed Bill that only a person practicing Islam for at least five years can create a waqf that directly clashes with Islamic laws. Islamic laws, the board members told the JPC, do not impose any such condition for creating a waqf.
The JPC is conducting a hearing on the provisions in the proposed Bill after it was referred to it by the government following objections from Muslim leaders and pressure from NDA allies like JDU and Telugu Desam Party. Opposition parties like RJD, Shiv Sena (UT), and other opposition parties have also expressed their dissent on the Bill. The board leaders have already met NDA allies like JDU, TDP and opposition party leaders and requested them to ensure that the Bill is not passed in Parliament.
The board is an umbrella body of the representatives of all major Muslim organisations belonging to different schools of Islamic thought in India that works for the protection of Sharia laws in India. The board is engaged in protecting the waqf laws because these are based on Islamic or what is called Shariah laws and any interpolation in it will amount to interference in religious laws. Moreover, Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees all citizens to profess and practice their respective religions without interference from any quarter.
