LUCKNOW: The Sunni Waqf Board is ready with a blueprint to set up a trust for the construction of the proposed mosque on five-acre land allotted to it by Uttar Pradesh government in compliance with the Supreme Court order over Ayodhya issue.
The trust will also be entitled to build a charitable hospital, a public library and an ‘Indo-Islamic Cultural Centre’.
The formal announcement of the trust for the mosque is likely to take place by the Board at its meeting on March 5.
As per the sources, the trust is expected to have 10 members under the chairmanship of Zufar Farooqui, who heads the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board (UPSCWB).
A majority of the trust members will be nominated from UPSCWB along with two Muslim scholars and one Sunni Waqf member with legal background. The sources also claimed that UPSCWB’s two members -- Imran Mabood Khan and Abdul Razzaq—who had opposed Zufar Farooqui’s decision to accept the five-acre land allotted to the Board, may not be inducted into the trust. However, they may be roped in to supervise the construction work of the mosque.
The decision to set up a trust for mosque construction was taken at the Board's meeting on February 24. The five-acre alternative land has been allotted to UPSCWB for the mosque construction in Dhannipur village under Sohawal tehsil in Raunai township, 20 km away from proper Ayodhya.
In fact, the tenure of the current board is ending on March 31, this year.
The Board has a total eight members including chairman Zufar Farooqui. In the wake of this fact, Farooqui is working to settle this issue soon and the Board can have many more meetings after March 5.
Though some of the litigants like Haji Mehboob and even Iqbal Ansari had asked the state government to review the location of the plot as it was far from Ram Janmbhoomi complex and it would be difficult for a resident of Ayodhya to go that far to offer Namaz, Sunni Waqf Board accepted the land.
Board’s chief Zufar Farooqui had contended that land was accepted in compliance of the apex court order delivered on November 9, 2019.
On the other, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) had asked the Sunni Waqf Board not to accept the land as it was against the tenets of ‘Shariat’ (Islamic law) to construct a mosque on the land given in donation.