No change in the Waqf Act is acceptable- Big statement by All India Muslim Personal Law Board

Waqf Board News: The bill amending the Waqf Board has not yet been introduced in the Parliament but there has already been an uproar over it. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has objected to this 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 person to usurp them, will never be accepted. Similarly, reducing or limiting the rights of Waqf Boards will also not be tolerated at all. At the same time, 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 has been said that no change in the Waqf Act is acceptable. Reducing the rights of the Waqf Board is not tolerated. Amendments in it will make it easier to usurp 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 can 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 purposes. The government has just 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 changes the nature and status of these properties. He said that till now all the decisions and steps taken by the government related to Muslims have only taken something away from them, nothing has been given, 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 matter will not be limited to Muslims only. After hitting the Waqf properties, it is feared that the next turn may come to the Waqf properties of Sikhs and Christians and then the monasteries and other religious properties of Hindus.