Report Jawad Meer
Gulbarga, September 3: The Gulbarga District Waqf Advisory Committee has outrightly rejected the Waqf Amendment Bill 2024 proposed by the central government. In response, a special meeting was convened at the Waqf office under the chairmanship of District Chairman Syed Habib Sarmast, where detailed discussions on various aspects of the bill were held. Following these discussions, the Chairman, along with all committee members, unanimously passed a resolution condemning the Waqf Amendment Bill and called on the central government to withdraw it.
During this meeting, Syed Habib Sarmast, Chairman of the Gulbarga District Waqf Advisory Committee, announced the launch of a campaign against the bill. He explained that the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), formed by the central government to review the Waqf Amendment Bill, has invited public consultations on the matter. In line with the directives of Karnataka’s Minister of Waqf, Alhaj Zameer Ahmed Khan, and State Chairman Anwar Basha, the Gulbarga Waqf Advisory Committee, in collaboration with the Muslim Research and Analysis Center, has initiated this campaign.
Riyaz Ahmed Khan, Chairman of the Karnataka Waqf Board’s Law Committee, has prepared an 11-page comprehensive draft outlining objections, suggestions, and recommendations against the Waqf Amendment Bill 2024. To facilitate the submission of these objections to the JPC, a “QR Code” has been created by the committee. This QR code can be accessed via any smartphone, and upon scanning, it opens a window containing an 11-page letter, the JPC’s email address, and the sender’s email address. By simply pressing the send button, the email is directly forwarded to the JPC.
The Waqf Board Chairman has appealed to all Muslims, particularly the youth, and the heads and members of Waqf institutions, mosques, and Ashoorkhanas, as well as custodians of dargahs and khanqahs, to register as many objections as possible with the JPC. Chairman Sarmast has set a target of sending at least one million objections from Gulbarga district alone and has urged everyone to cooperate in achieving this goal.
He also called on lecturers, doctors, engineers, lawyers, political leaders, and social workers to actively participate in this campaign. According to him, the central government is attempting to seize Waqf properties under the guise of this bill. If the Waqf Amendment Bill is passed into law, no Waqf property in India will be safe. Furthermore, he warned that in the future, the central government might even impose restrictions on Friday sermons for Muslims. Therefore, he urged all Muslims to send a large number of objections to the JPC and to raise their voices against the bill by organizing protests and demonstrations according to their capacity.
