Chief NCP SP Sharad Pawar on Sunday assured the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, AIMPLB, that the opposition will stall the Waqf, Amendment Bill 2024 in Parliament.
"We will not allow it to be passed in the Parliament at any cost," Pawar assured the AIMPLB delegation. He added that NCP Member of Parliament, Suresh Mhatre Alias Balya Mama, who is also a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, has been instructed to fully represent the sentiments of Muslims in the committee.
Earlier, a delegation of AIMPLB, led by the Board's General Secretary Ml Fazlur Raheem Mujaddidi, called on Sharad Pawar at his residence and submitted a memorandum pertaining to the proposed Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024.
The delegation demanded the bill's rejection, saying that it is against the spirit of the Constitution. They reasoned that a false impression has been built which is interpreted to mean that all lands or properties claimed by Waqf Board, ipso facto, belong to the latter. In reality, however, many acres of Waqf land are under illegal possession of Central and state governments, etcetera, and efforts are underway for their retrieval.
There is fear that, with the passage of the contentious bill, it might snatch these lands from the Waqf Board. The General Secretary also felt that the present Waqf Act has a multi-tier judicial mechanism in the form of the Waqf Tribunal, High Courts, and Supreme Court for dispute resolution. But this amendment is aimed at transferring all judicial matters to the district collector, who might not be independent enough to raise questions against the government's decision.
Besides, the delegation had opposed the inclusion of non-Muslim members in the Waqf Board and the Central Waqf Council, and the proposal to do away with the requirement that the CEO be a Muslim. The General Secretary lambasted the bill, stating, "We believe that this bill has been introduced to encroach on Waqf properties which is absolutely unacceptable to us. Instead of any amendment in the bill, Muslims reject it in totality."
The delegation asked Pawar that his party and the India Alliance do enough to pressurize the government to take back the bill.
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