NEW DELHI: Activist Rais Khan Pathan, a former associate of Teesta Setalvad who had accused her of tutoring witnesses in the Gujarat riots case, and a host of BJP leaders are part of the newly constituted Central Wakf Council, the supreme body managing Muslim properties in India.
Pathan, a former associate of activist Setalvad who has been booked by the CBI for alleged embezzlement of NGO funds, was made member under the category of those belonging to any Muslim body with all-India character. He had accused Setalvad of tampering with evidence in the riots case.
The Centre reconstituted the 20-member council with Union Minister of Minority Affairs Najma Heptulla as its chairperson on November 23. The body, whose main aim is to advise the Central and state governments and Wakf boards on their functioning, will have a tenure of three years.
The board to be reconstituted by the Centre includes the NDA’s minority wing leaders Mohd Irfan Ahmed (New Delhi) and S Munawari Begum (Tamil Nadu), both vice-presidents in the BJP Minority Morcha. The BJP’s woman face in the Kashmir Valley, Dr Darakshan Andrabi, who contested against former Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah from Sonawar Assembly constituency, and Nausad TO, a BJP leader who contested the 2011 Assembly polls in Kerala, are also in the list.
Mohammad Hamid of Imam Tanzeem Nagpur, a moderate Islamic body, has also been made a member. Hamid was part of a Muslim delegation that met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April and articulated that Wahabi influence over mosques was increasing in the country.
Among MPs named in the council is Mehboob Ali Kaiser (Khagaria, Bihar), a former Congress leader who now represents NDA ally LJP. Interestingly, Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP Mohd Ali Khan from Andhra Pradesh has also been made a member. From Karnataka, where the BJP will be making a renewed bid to win back the state, former JD(S) candidate Abbas Ali Bohra has been included. Baramulla MP Muzaffar Hussain Baig, who belongs to NDA partner PDP, is also in the list. Among other members are Justice (retired) Mohd Shamim and Justice (retd) Barkat Ali Zaidi, besides chairmen of Wakf boards in three BJP-ruled states—Mohd Salim Ashrafi (Chhattisgarh), Shoukat Mohd Khan (Madhya Pradesh) and AI Saiyed (Gujarat).
Syed Zainul Abedin Ali Khan, the spiritual head of Ajmer Sharif, has been nominated under scholars with the knowledge of Muslim laws. Also named under this category is Mumbai-based lawyer Syed Ezaz Abbas, who had fought cases for Muslim victims. Dr Nizamuddin Mohsin (Hubli, Karnataka) and Mohd Ekramullah Siddiqui (Ghazipur, UP) are the other members of the council.