Joint Shia-Sunni waqf board in Uttar Pradesh?

Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is now planning to form a “UP Muslim Waqf Board” by merging the Shia and Sunni waqf boards. Minister of state for waqf Mohsin Raza told reporters that this move would prevent wastage of money and check corruption given that both the boards have serious corruption allegations against them. Therefore, he added, the UP government was considering dissolving both the boards.

The minister said the UP Muslim Waqf Board, when constituted, would have members of both Sunni and Shia communities and its chairman will be selected from among them. He explained: “The government has got several recommendations and the proposal ... is being finalised. (It) will be sent for approval to the law department, after which the plan will be implemented.”

Mr Raza said with the exception of UP and Bihar, all states in the country had one unified waqf board. He quoted the Waqf Act 1995 and Shias or Sunnis should have at least 15 per cent share in the total waqf units for constitution of separate boards, which was not the case in UP, where Shias account for only 5,000 units of the total 24,000 waqf units.

The minister added that as per the Central Waqf Council, there are only 3,000 units of the Shia Waqf Board, and there was no point in keeping a separate Shia board.

Reacting to this development, Shia waqf board chairman Waseem Rizvi said there was no provision to separate the Sunni and Shia boards, that were constituted in 2015 for a tenure of five years. He said: “There is no provision to dissolve the board. Once the tenure ends, the government can inquire about the number of waqf units and their income, and then take the decision.”

UP Sunni waqf board chairman Zufar Farooqui said they welcomed the initiative of merging both boards into one, but wondered why the state government was changing a decision taken under BJP rule in 1999 by then CM Kalyan Singh. “In 1999, when the BJP was in power and Kalyan Singh was chief minister, he constituted separate Shia and Sunni waqf boards. The question arises whether the present government doesn’t endorse the previous BJP government’s decision,” Mr Farooqui asked.