Parliament panel on Waqf bill lines up meetings, five-state tour as report submission deadline looms

New Delhi: Amid the looming deadline to submit its report, the Parliamentary panel on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill has scheduled a series of meetings and tour of five state capitals next week to hear views of diverse stakeholders on the issue.

The Joint Committee on the Waqf Amendment Bill, chaired by Jagdambika Pal, has lined up meetings on November 4-5 to hear views of Muslim women, academics, lawyers and socio-religious organisations.

From November 9, the committee will begin its five-state tour from Assam's Guwahati, where it will have informal interactions with representatives of the departments of minority affairs and law and justice, the state minority commission, and Waqf boards of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura.

The panel will also meet representatives of the Bar Council and lawyers' associations, muttawalli associations and other stakeholders.

The committee will have discussions with a similar group of stakeholders in Odisha's Bhubaneswar (November 11), West Bengal (November 12), Bihar (November 13) and Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow (November 14).

The panel has been asked to submit its report on the Bill by the last day of the first week of the winter session of Parliament, expected to begin on November 25.

There have been instances where the committees have been granted multiple extensions but Pal is keen to present the report within the set time frame.

On November 4, the committee is scheduled to meet representatives of the Jamaat-e-Islam-e-Hind, Muslim Women Intellectual Group led by Shalini Ali, Jamiyat Himayatul Islam led by its president Qari Abrar Jamal, Shia Muslim Dharmaguru and intellectual group led by Maulana Kokab Mujtaba, and members of of the Vishwa Shanti Parishad led by its national president Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

The following day, it will hear views of representatives of the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad led by Shreehari Borikar; Anveshak led by Gaurav Agrawal; Anjuman-e-Shiateali of the Dawoodi Bohra community; Mohammad Hanif Ahmad, an associate professor of Aligarh Muslim University; and Imran Chaudhary and Group, convenor of Student and Madarsa Cell.