- Muslim Affairs Minister intervenes
- Minister appoints special teams to look into the current issues
- The WAKF board can appoint trustees and the Director of MRCA cannot refuse to release appointment orders
by Ifham Nizam
Despite number of allegations level against the Sri Lanka WAKF Tribunal (SLWT), especially by the trustees of popular mosques with shrines, Muslims Religious and Cultural Affairs Minister Abdul Haleem stressed that the Board is acting independently and would take appropriate steps at the right time.
However, speaking to The Sunday Leader, he agreed that there were few delays when it comes to taking solution on some issues.
He said that decisions were taken according to the problems and obviously some cases might be delayed due to the own going investigations and inquiries. bAllegations Against Mosque Trustees
The Minister also alleged that there is number of evidence that some the mosque management were corrupt, thus, he had appointed special teams to look into the current issues (See letter and notice).
The Sunday Leader has all relevant documents especially to prove the recent conduct of the SLWT.
When queried Minister expressed confidence that public would shortly know the real situation behind some of the mosques.
“I was not aware of this…I would certainly look into the matter,” he said when we questioned about the conduct and mismanagement of resources by Department of Muslim Affairs Acting Director.
Muslim Affairs Minister Abdul Haleem
The Sunday Leader reliably learns how the Department spent some Rs. 350,000 on souvenirs to mark the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad. These books were not distributed due to the fact, two names of the Ministry officials were missing. While thanking the newspaper, minister agreed to look into the matter. The Minister also said that he is aware of the track record of the Acting Director when he was serving the Motor Traffic Department. However, his recent conduct was not brought under his notice which he promised to look into.
SLWT, the Board which appoints trustees to mosques countrywide and deals with complaints regarding appointments, has been neglected by the Department of Muslims Religious and Cultural Affairs, according to Managing Trustee of the Shaikh Usman Waliyullah shrine and Masjid (Dewatagha Mosque), Reyyaz Salley.
According to the officials at the Department of Muslims Affairs, the SLWT holds meetings and discussions at the Ministry premises.
They pointed out that there are two separate Boards, one is the WAKF Board of Sri Lanka and the other is the SLWT. They each have separate buildings for their meetings and discussions.
Meanwhile, Salley who is also the Chairman of Islamic Solidarity Front (ISF) told The Sunday Leader that certain mosques do not come under the Jamath sector and therefore, trustees were appointed accordingly to manage the mosques they belong to, but the WAKF Board acts according to the instructions given by the ministry secretary in appointing the trustees to certain mosques in Colombo.
Had not the former director of the MRCA Zameel interfered with the WAKF Board, problems that were being raised in the board would have been prevented.
According to the WAKF regulations, no change can be made in the management of the mosques when there is a pending case against it, but Minister’s younger brother is alleged to have been making attempts to remove the present trustee board from the Dewatagaha mosque due to political vengeance, even though there is a case pending against it at the WAKF tribunal that deals with complaints regarding appointments of trustees.
It is the duty of the WAKF board to appoint suitable trustees to the mosques island wide and to hold inquiries when an issue is raised up but, since they have failed to fulfil their duties the cases were filed at the tribunal which is already filled with pending cases.
Salley said it was the obvious failure of the Chairman Mr Yaseen and the director of the WAKF board who are ignorant of holding inquiries into the issues being raised up.
Moreover, a female trustee is not usually appointed to look into the mosque affairs whereas the former trustee of Daftar Jailani was given to a female who was the daughter of a former Cabinet Minister. She was appointed by the previous chairman of the WAKF Board, Alkam Uwais. Politics should be set aside from being involved into religious affairs.
It is noteworthy, that it is one of the mosques in the country where a lot of charity funds come in. In the meantime, a new set of trustees were appointed to the Daftar Jailani mosque for six months and the period is being extended for one year as the previous trustees have not furnished any documentation on any accounts.
Although the WAKF board decided to give the extension after the 6 months period was over in July 2016, the Director of the Department of Muslim Religious Cultural Affairs had allegedly refused to release the appointment letters in the claim there were some issues in the appointment and the extension.
The WAKF board has the sole authority to appoint trustees and once it was decided by the board the director of MRCA cannot refuse to release the appointment orders.
It was alleged that the director refused to hand over the appointment letter as the former female trustee of the mosque had allegedly requested the Minister and the Director not to give them the extension order.
Meanwhile, even though the new set of trustees have written to the banks informing them of the change of trustees and the cheque books, the former female trustee had withdrawn about Rs.15,000 through the previous cheque book of the mosque. Following the incident the bank attempted to compensate with the new trustees, but had been stopped. Minister Haleem assured that plans are in the pipeline and he would go hard when investigations are completed in this regard.