BJP MLC Bukkal Nawab Resigns from UP Shia Waqf Board, Calls it a ’House of Corruption’

Mangalore Today News Network

Lucknow, Sept 12, 2018 : Just days after Waseem Rizvi, Chairman of the UP Shia Waqf Board , was “excommunicated” for not heeding to a fatwa issued by Iraq’s top Shia cleric against handing over Waqf properties for the construction of a temple or a shrine, controversy surrounds him once again after BJP MLC Mazhar Ali Khan announced his resignation from the Shia Waqf Board and demanded its immediate dissolution.

 

Terming it as a ‘house of corruption’, in a letter addressed to the Principal Secretary of the Minorities Welfare Department, Azhar Ali or ‘Bukkal Nawab’ stated that he voted for Rizvi as the Chairman only at the behest of the then cabinet minister Azam Khan.

Calling the decision the biggest mistake of his life, Bukkal Nawab wrote, “I have not attended a single meeting of the UP Shia Waqf Board ever since I became a member. The board is involved in many scams and voting for Waseem Rizvi was the biggest mistake of my life. I demand immediate dissolution of the board and also resign from my membership of the board. ”

However, Rizvi dismissed all allegations and corruption charges against him and called Bukkal’s decision a ‘cheap publicity stunt’ orchestrated in order to gain sympathy from Shia clerics who opposed his stand on the Ayodhya dispute.

“The BJP MLC Bukkal Nawab was not a member of UP Shia Waqf Board as he resigned as MLC on July 27, 2017. His membership stood automatically cancelled on the day he quit as MLC of the Samajwadi Party,” he said.

Rizvi also claimed that he had already written to Principal Secretary of the Minorities Welfare Department last year to initiate the process of filling the post after Bukkal Nawab’s resignation in July.