It will help increase the income of the Waqf Board

Ambala: Haryana Waqf Board Administrator Zakir Hussain while discussing with media in detail the benefits and concerns of the Amendment Bill 2024 at Waqf Board office said how this bill is in the interest of Muslims and will help increase the income of the Waqf Board. He also refuted the allegations that this bill is a step towards closing down the Waqf Board by the ruling government as claimed by a handful of people for their self-vested interests. After the Amendment Bill 2024 was passed by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, he said that this bill is in the interest of Muslims and will benefit them as well as  will increase the income of the Waqf Board and money will be spent on mosques, graveyards and dargahs for the benefit of Muslims community and will also spend in a better way on the education of Muslim children, therefore this bill is going to be beneficial for the entire community. He said that if BJP was the enemy of Muslims, the Waqf Board would have been closed, but this did not happen.
Haryana Waqf Board Administrator Zakir  Husain said that in the cases being heard under this Act, earlier there was a provision that cases were heard in the Waqf Tribunal and people went to the High Court or Supreme Court for revision. There was a provision for appeal in this, but in the case that has come through revision, people can go to the High Court, and such things have happened in Haryana before as well having a thousand cases pending here. The High Court, Supreme Court and Waqf Tribunal are also involved in these cases. When asked what will be the advantages and disadvantages of the new Waqf Bill, Zakir Husain said the Amendment Bill has been passed by the Central Government in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and in the coming times, the lands  owned by Haryana Waqf Board will benefit a lot from this, besides there will be transparency in the work of the Waqf Board and the income of the Waqf Board will be better managed in the accounts. There is no such problem in the Haryana Waqf Board. We are already working on the amendments that have been passed. Complaints have come from other places.

When asked how many Waqf properties and tenants are there in Haryana? Zakin Husain said that there are 12, 336 property gazettes notified in Haryana at present, whereas the tenants are concerned, there are 25, 782 tenants from whom the Board earns annual income worth about Rs 27 crore. When raised a question how many illegal occupations are there, he answered he has just given details about illegal occupation and on asking if government departments taken over the markets also, Zakin Husain said there is nothing pending in this regard, however some properties are with the government department where Income is also coming and Waqf Board do not have any problem in this regard, and It is not that the Waqf Board has claimed the government property. When questioned, which district has the maximum Waqf Board properties, he replied that the maximum number of properties include Gurugram, Rohtak, Rewari, Karnal and Ambala districts.

When questioned, in the Act earlier the government used to appoint members, but now the government will also appoint the chairman. Will this be beneficial or harmful? In reply Zakir Husain said that earlier also there was a provision in section 14 in which first the members were being nominated and they used to elect the chairman, due to which many times the chairman had to stay in it under pressure from the members, but such a problem never arose in Haryana. In reply to a question that some people are opposing this bill, which includes political people also, how do you see it? Zakir Husain said when it comes to politics in the country, no matter how good work is done, it should be appreciated. “My father Tayyab Hussain was a minister in three states, I also became an MLA in 1991. It has been a tradition in our family that if someone does good work, say good and if he does bad, say bad. Today the opposition has adopted a tone of criticism,” Sakir Husain said when the Waqf Amendment Bill was introduced last year in 2024, there were many things in it. A JPC was formed and it gave people a chance, heard the parties, had long sittings and the government accepted those amendments from a big open platform.

In another question, who is spreading rumours like closure of Waqf Board? Zakir Husain replied that what the Congress is doing in Haryana today is wrong. The fact that the Waqf Board is in a good position today is because of the Bharatiya Janata Party. If the BJP was the enemy of Muslims, the Waqf Board would have been closed today. The BJP government works with all religions and sects, with the aim of ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’. When questioned who occupied the Waqf lands, Zakir Husain gave an example of the real enemy of the Waqf Board in 2013, when Hooda was the Chief Minister in the state, there was a 2.5 acre land in Gurugram where Idgah had been built 400-500 years ago, where Namaaz was being offered, but Idgah was demolished with a bulldozer and the land was snatched from the Waqf Board and Muslims were not allowed to offer namaz there and Muslims protested against Congress MLAs snatched their land. He added that Aftab Ahmad was a Congress MLA from Nuh, Congress MLA Hatim and his father late Jaleb Khan were the Chief Parliamentary Secretary at that time. Haryana Waqf Board Administrator Zakir Husain said, we all approached then CM Hooda and demanded that the land be released but the land of Idgah was forcibly taken away. “Waqf suffered losses during Hooda sahab’s rule under the Congress government,” he said.

Anil Vij

While talking to media persons yesterday, Cabinet Minister Anil Vij did not even spare Congress. He targeted Congress for opposing the Waqf Amendment Bill, and said that this bill has been passed in the Parliament and applies to everyone. Congress’s statement that they will not accept it is an insult to the Parliament. Vij said that the policy of appeasement was adopted during the rule of Congress. Haryana’s Energy, Transport and Labor Minister Anil Vij said that our government has made the Amendment Bill 2025 in a liberal way, and has been passed after discussion in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, which applies to all. Vij said the policy of appeasement was adopted during the rule of Congress. Vij was talking to journalists here regarding the matter of Congress going to the Supreme Court against the Waqf Amendment Bill. He said that the Waqf Amendment Bill has been duly passed. Under Article 14 of the Constitution, everyone has been given the right to equality. But due to the policy of appeasement during the rule of Congress, some works have been done which have been given priority over others. Vij added, “In 2013, Congress passed the Waqf Board bill, which had a provision that if the Waqf Board declares any property as its own, then it becomes its property. People had to fight against this in the court. This is against the basic spirit of the Constitution. The way land was being looted in the country. People have taken land worth crores on lease for a few rupees.”