By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: All is not unwell. In the dark cloud of wakf corruption across the country, Punjab Wakf Board is shining like a silver lining – thanks to several truly constructive projects and programs it is running for uplift, particularly educational, of the Muslim community in the state.
The Punjab Wakf Board is running several schools under its direct management. It distributes scholarships among deserving students and also gives grants to some madrasas and maktabs. Besides, the board gives salaries to Imams of wakf mosques and it provides pension to widows, orphans and the destitute. It is doing several other charity works also.
The last two years, however, have added two bright colorful feathers to the board’s cap as it completed and started running a well-equipped girls college and a multi-crore hospital, both in Malerkotla. “These are the two latest additions to the already going-on constructive programs of the wakf board,” says chairman of Punjab Wakf Board, Mohammad Izhar Alam, IPS, DGP (Retd.) while talking to TCN over phone about the activities of the board. Both the college and hospital have been established under the leadership of Alam, who is the third chairman of the wakf board since it was set up in 2003.
Islamia Girls College
The college located in Malerkotla has been set up with the following purpose: (i) To provide higher Education to the girls from Muslim and other communities of Malerkotla; (ii) To provide the cheapest but the best education and hospitality.
The girls college, which is affiliated to Punjabi University, Patiala, was founded by Padam Shree Izhar Alam when he assumed the office of Chairman of the Punjab Wakf Board in 2010. The college is catering to the educational needs of the girl students of Malerkotla and its neighboring areas in general and Muslims in particular.
The college is offering both Arts and Science courses. The bachelor degree courses are available in English, Punjabi, Urdu, History, Political Science, Economics, Psychology and Physical Education. The college also offers computer courses like BCA and PGDCA.
Hazrat Halima Maternity and General Hospital
The hospital also has started functioning from 2010. Though building work was completed in 2003. It took seven years to equip it with modern and sophisticated gadgets. The five-crore hospital various facilities like digital x-ray machine, ultrasound with color doppler, beds with oxygen gas supply and ambulance vans are fitted with ventilator.
With 26 staff including doctors, nurses and others, the hospital is trying to prove cheapest but good medical treatment to the residents of Malerkotla and nearby areas.
Punjab Wakf Board
The Punjab Wakf Board came into existence in the year 2003. It is a statutory body constituted by the Department of Home, Government of Punjab under the Wakf Act 1995 (Central Act 43 of 1995). Several Masjids, Qabristans, Dargahs etc. are registered with the board in addition to the wakf properties which run into over 20000 in number. The present is the 3rd board since its formation in 2003.
The website of the wakf board http://www.pbwakf.org/ provides some details about the wakf properties in Punjab. According to the site, there are 22462 wakf properties in Punjab. While government departments and local bodies have encroached some 443 wakf properties private individuals have encroachment over 2707 wakf properties. Besides, there are 5084 wakf properties leased out on low rent.
Asked about the encroachment of wakf properties, board chairman Izhar Alam said: “We are fighting 7300 cases in the court. Out of around 25000 wakf properties, we are getting income only from 3500 wakf properties and investing the income in constructive work particularly for educational uplift of the Muslim community.”
Future Plan
Izhar Alam says “the board is already running 2 modern schools separately for boys and girls and there are 6000 students enrolled in those schools.” About future plan he says: “We are going to open a paramedical institute in Malerkotla. The building work has started. It will take 4-5 years to complete.”
Another project is about English medium schools upto the level of senior secondary. “We are going to open English medium schools in three different districts of considerable Muslim population including Malerkotla and Ludhiyana. These schools will have classes from nursery to senior secondary level,” Alam informs.
On how his wakf board is doing so great work amidst allegations of rampant corruption against many wakf boards in the country, the retired IPS officer Alam said: “Ye Allah ki taufeeq hai. (I am doing this only with Allah’s blessings).