All India Muslim Personal Law Board
The bill amending the Waqf Board has not yet been presented in the Parliament but it has already created an uproar. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has objected to it and said that any such change in the Waqf Act 2013, which changes the status and nature of Waqf properties or makes it easier for the government or any individual to usurp them, will never be accepted. Similarly, any reduction or limitation of the rights of Waqf Boards will also not be tolerated at all. Sunni religious leader Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali has also called the amendment in the Waqf Act unnecessary.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has issued a statement in which it is said that any change in the Wakf Act is not acceptable. Reducing the rights of the Wakf Board will not be tolerated. If there is an amendment in it, then
It will become easier to grab Waqf land. The government cannot make any amendment in this law.
Owaisi has called the amendment bill a conspiracy to usurp the property of the Waqf Board, while Lucknow-Darul Uloom spokesperson Sufiyan Nizami has said that the government should strengthen the Waqf Act, remove illegal encroachments from Waqf, strengthen the hands of the Waqf Board, help the Board with good intentions, take over government buildings on Waqf lands. Any change in the Waqf Act will never be accepted.
All India Muslim Personal Law Board spokesperson Dr. Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas said in a press statement that according to reliable information, the Government of India wants to change the status and nature of Waqf properties through about 40 amendments in the Waqf Act 2013 so that it becomes easier to occupy and usurp them. According to information, such a bill may be introduced in Parliament next week. The Muslim Personal Law Board considers it necessary to clarify that Waqf properties are gifts given by Muslim elders which have been Waqfed for religious and charitable works. The government has simply made the Waqf Act to control them.
He further said that the Indian Constitution and Shariat Application Act 1937 also provide protection to the Waqf Act and Waqf properties. Therefore, the Government of India cannot make any amendment in this law which would change the nature and status of these properties. He said that till now whatever decisions and steps the government has taken regarding Muslims, they have only taken something away from them and given nothing, whether it is the closure of Maulana Azad Foundation, or cancellation of minority scholarship, or the law related to triple talaq.
He said that this issue will not be limited to Muslims only. After attacking the Waqf properties, it is feared that the next number may come to the Waqf properties of Sikhs and Christians and then the monasteries and other religious properties of Hindus.
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