Author:
Publication: Deccan Chronicle
Date: June 9, 2006
The Wakf Board on Thursday handed over control
of 11 prime Wakf properties to an all-woman panel in the city. Angry clergy
immediately passed a fatwa against the move. The five-member women committee
was constituted on May 23 under the presidentship of Ms Salma Jalees. On Thursday,
the Board handed over the management of 11 Wakf properties to the committee.
The committee is tasked with the responsibility
of protecting, managing and developing the Wakf properties spread across the
twin cities. This is the first time that women are controlling Muslim endowment
properties in the country. The committee has been entrusted with the job of
paying seven per cent Wakf Fund to the Board. It will spend 10 per cent on
maintenance of the institutions and the remaining 83 per cent will be spent
on welfare activities.
Till now these 11 institutions were under
the direct management of the Wakf Board. The Muslim clergy reacted sharply
to the Board's decision. In an oral fatwa, Moulana Mufti Abdul Moghni of Sabeelus
Salam, an influential religious institution of higher learning, described
the move as irreligious and against the spirit of the Wakf Act. Moulana Syed
Shah Badruddin Al-Qadri Al-Jeelani, chief patron of Sunni Ulema Board, described
the appointment as un-Islamic.
