By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Kolkata: The 20th session of the general body meeting of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, (AIMPLB), an apex body of Indian Muslims which was formed in 1973 to protect the Muslim Personal Law, will get underway here on Saturday. The session will be held at Khodiram Anshulan Manch which has been christened as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Manch.
Addressing a joint Press conference Syed Nizamuddin and Mohd. Abdur Raheem Quraishi, general secretary and Asstt. general secretary respectively of AIMPLB, said the issues of compulsory registration of marriages, Uniform Civil Code, Babri Masjid tangle, female foeticide, social reformation etc. would be deliberated at the AIMPLB session.
Syed Nizamuddin said the AIMPLB has been resisting attempts by the government to enact and enforce Uniform Civil Code and to enact parallel law to make Shariat Law ineffective. It is also creating awareness in the Muslim community and exhorting them to follow the teachings of Islam and principles and rules of Shariat in all aspect of life particularly in family matters.
Nizamuddin said the AIMPLB is engaged in social reformation campaign. The Committee on social reformation has started a movement against female foeticide. This is not a major problem of the Muslim society. However, this evil is increasing day by day in the other segments of the Indian citizenry particularly in the Hindu society. The Board has taken this cause as a common cause of all Indians and expects that others will join hands to combat this social evil.
He reminded it is a well known fact that in pre-Islamic Arabia daughter killing was common. It was Islam which declared it a sin and rooted out this evil from the soil of Arabia. It is high time for every conscientious Indian to be up and join hands with the Muslim Personal Law Board to create social awareness to root out this evil of female foeticide from the Indian society.
Mohd. Abdur Raheem Quraishi, said nowadays there is much hue and cry for compulsory registration of marriages. The AIMPLB is not against registration but feels that making it compulsory it going to create hardship and difficulties for a large section of people irrespective of caste and creed.
“We have yet no administrative mechanism at village level and one can not expect a poor villager to come to the registration office along with his spouse, witnesses and the person who solemnized the marriage and stay at the place till the process is complete. Making the registration compulsory is certainly going to create hardships and put financial burden on the couple”, Qurraishi pointed out.
It is, therefore, Quraishi said that in spite of the enactment of such laws in some states the same could not be enforced and implemented. The AIMPLB is really taking of the cause of all the citizens irrespective of caste and creed in the matter of compulsory registration of marriages.
He said another aspect which should be kept in mind is that amongst the Muslims in most of the marriages when performed a written record is made and kept whereas in the other communities no written records are maintained. It, therefore, creates graver problem for the others, he added.
While replying to a questioner Quraishi alleged that police and intelligence agencies are biased towards Muslims and target them whenever any bomb blasts takes place anywhere in the country. Despite leads of involvement of saffron brigade.
Meanwhile, AIMPLB’s 20th session will receive, consider and discuss reports of Board’s General Secretary, of the legal committee of Darul Qaza, social reformation and Babri Masjid committees, the duo informed.
The session will also consider the status and position of civil and criminal cases relating to Babri Masjid and will decide further course of action, they revealed.
Alhaj Sultan Ahmad, general secretary Majlis Istaqbalia (Reception committee), who was also present on the occasion, informed that on the last day of the AIMPLB session on Sunday afternoon a huge public rally will be organized here in Park Circus ground. In the rally Muslim clerics from all over India attending the session will address the public exhorting them to follow the Shariat laws in their daily lives in letter and spirit in order to be successful in this world and hereafter.
Meanwhile, after Maghrib prayers today the meeting of the working committee of AIMPLB, chaired by its president Maulana Syed Rabey Hasani Nadwi, started. In the meeting amongst other matters on the agenda the report of various committees viz. Islah Ma’ashrah Committee, Dar-ul-Qaza Committee and Babri Masjid Committee, and their proposals are expected to be discussed which will be tabled before the general body tomorrow.
It may be mentioned here that the AIMPLB was established in April 1973 when the Government of India was trying to subvert Shariah law applicable to Indian Muslims through parallel legislation. Adoption Bill had been tabled in the Parliament. H.R.Gokhle, the then Federal Law Minister, had termed this Bill as the first step towards the Uniform Civil Code. ([email protected])