Maulana Kalbe Jawad

LUCKNOW: A day after state minister for waqf and haj Mohsin Raza claimed the state government had initiated the process of dissolving the Shia and Sunni waqf boards, Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad welcomed the move.

Jawad, the general secretary of the Majlis-e-Ulama-e-Hind (MUH), had been at loggerheads with the chairperson of UP Shia Central Waqf Board and former minority affairs minister Azam Khan . He had staged protests demanding for the dissolution of the Shia waqf board.

After Friday prayers at the Asafi mosque in Bada Imambara, Jawad said, "Corrupt persons claiming that the government will eat up the minority boards after dissolution should know they will be asked to testify. If they are honest, why worry?" he said.

Shia waqf board chairperson Waseem Rizvi claimed the board was yet to receive any show-cause notice from the minister as was claimed on Thursday. Rizvi also declared that the Central Waqf Council 's ( CWC ) report, the base for the recommendation of dissolution, was only in reaction to the board summoning Raza on June 22 on corruption charges.

The chairperson also claimed the report compiled by CWC member Ejaz Ahmed was illegal.

Ahmed, in Mumbai, said. "A decision and resolution was passed by the CWC in March 2016 to give charge of state waqf boards to CWC members. I was given charge of both Shia and Sunni Waqf boards in UP. I gave prior intimation to the boards of my visit after which I submitted my report to the CWC."

