Mumbai. Nationalist Congress Party leader and Rajya Sabha member Sharad Pawar was met by a delegation of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board at his residence on Sunday. During this, the delegation submitted a memorandum regarding the Waqf Amendment Bill-2024 and demanded the rejection of the bill. The delegation of All India Muslim Personal Law Board told Sharad Pawar that the Waqf Amendment Bill-2024 is against the Constitution of India. Board General Secretary ML Fazlur Rahim Mujaddidi told Pawar that it is being falsely claimed that any land or property claimed by the Waqf Board automatically becomes its property. He said that the reality is that thousands of acres of Waqf land are in illegal possession of the Central and State Governments, including others, and efforts have been made for years to get them back.
However, after the passage of this controversial bill, all the land will be taken away from the possession of the Wakf Board. He said that under the existing Wakf Act (1995), there is a multi-level judicial system to settle such disputes. After the Wakf Tribunal, there is an option to appeal to the High Courts and the Supreme Court. But with this amendment, all judicial cases will be transferred to the District Collector/DM. No collector in the country will dare to take a decision against the government. The delegation also strongly opposed the proposal to include non-Muslim members in the Wakf Board and Central Wakf Council and to remove the requirement of being a Muslim for the post of CEO. Highlighting other shortcomings of the bill, the general secretary said that we believe that this bill has been introduced with the intention of taking over the Wakf properties, which is completely unacceptable to us.
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Instead of any amendment in the bill, Muslims reject it. The delegation demanded from Sharad Pawar that his party and India Coalition should put pressure on the government so that the bill can be withdrawn. Pawar assured the Muslim representatives that we will not let this bill pass in Parliament under any circumstances. The general secretary of the board thanked Pawar for this assurance. The delegation included prominent personalities of the Muslim community of Mumbai. These included Maulana Mahmood Ahmed Khan Dariyabadi, Abu Asim Azmi, Dr. Zaheer Qazi, Mufti Saidur Rahman, Salim Motorwala, Shia religious leader Maulana Ruh Zafar, Shakir Sheikh, Maulana Anees Ahmed Ashrafi, Maulana Burhanuddin Qasmi, Dr. Alimuddin, Hafiz Iqbal Chunawala, Naeem Sheikh and Sahil Subedar.