By Mohd. Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad: The Legislative Committee on Minority Affairs has termed the functioning of Andhra Pradesh wakf board as unsatisfactory. The special meeting called in by the committee to discuss various issues concerning the wakf board and wakf properties ended up in confrontation between the committee and the board as wakf board members were unable to clear many doubts regarding the board functioning and maintained obscurity on many crucial matters.
Sheikh MastanWali, Congress MLA from Guntur east and chairman of the Legislative committee on minority affairs condemned the wakfboard members when they were unable to give detailed reports on various burning issues of wakf properties. He observed that present substandard functioning of wakf board is due to the posting of wakf officers in a single office for a long period of time. To bring a new energy in the operations of wakf board the committee recommended urgent transfer of officers who haveheld the same office or designation for considerable period of time.
Chairman of the committee Mr. MastanWali also took a dig at his own committee members who didn’t turn up for the important meeting. Committee members like Congress Member of Legislative Council FarooqHussain, JaimatulUlema A.P. chief and Congress M.L.C Hafiz Peer Shabir Ahmed, TDP M.L.A Mohd Abdul Ghani and other M.L.As from Majlis-e-IttehadulMuslimeen attended the meeting.
Hyderabad district collector Syed Ali Murtuza Rizvi was present in the meeting to notice the situation of wakf properties in his jurisdiction. Principal Secretary of Minorities’ welfare department Mr. Dana Kishore also attended the meeting.
In this crucial meeting, committee members enquired about the condition of many high profile wakf properties. The wakf property encroached by task force police office was the matter of deliberation in the meeting. When the committee members tried to enquire about the steps taken by wakf board to retrieve the property, CEO wakf board Abdul Ghaffar gave the details of pending litigation which didn’t satisfy the committee.
Legislative committee also enquired about prestigious 5,000 crorewakf property case of DargahHazaratShah Wali and the process of litigation going on in Supreme Court. The CEO informed that Supreme Court lawyer FaliNariman is being appointed by A.P wakf board to fight the legal battle in the apex court.
The committee announced that on 24 September it will take an inspection drive on the litigated wakf properties, like DarghaHazaratShah Wali (Manikondawakf property), DargahHazratBaba Shariffuddin (Airport wakf property), Task force police office wakf property, and Hakeem Basher Ahmed wakf property.
The Committee also announced that it will visit Anantapur and Kurnool districts which have highest number of wakf properties after Hyderabad, to meet district collectors and to inspect about the condition of both protected and encroached wakf properties.
Chairman of the committee also informed that in the next scheduled meeting, the members will discuss functioning of AP minorities Finance Corporation, Urdu Academy, and the implementation of P.M.’s 15 point program.