AAP MLA Amantullah Khan elected chairman of Delhi Waqf Board

New Delhi, March 13: Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amantullah Khan has been unanimously elected the new chairman of Delhi Waqf Board.

At a meeting of the Board held at the Divisional Commissioner's office here yesterday, Khan's name was proposed by Chaudhary Sharif while Ejaz Arshad Kasmi seconded the proposal to unanimously elect him the new chairman, a senior government official said. Khan said his priority as the chairman of the Board will be to free encroached Waqf properties and develop it for the betterment of Muslim community in the city.

"A number of valuable properties of the Waqf Board are encroached which need to be freed. I will ensure that these properties are developed and revenue is increased so that welfare of Muslims in Delhi could be taken up on an extensive scale," he said.

Functioning of the Board will be improved by removing corruption and computerisation of paper work, he said.

"I have heard that corruption has increased which will be dealt with firmly. We will strive for a corruption-free Waqf Board," he said.

Apart from Khan, Sharif and Kasmi, the Board's other members S M Ali and Shaqir Ali attended the meeting while Congress's Rajya Sabha MP and member of the Board, Parvez Hashmi was not present.

The AAP government had "superseded" the Delhi Waqf Board, transferring all its powers and duties to the Secretary (Revenue) in the city administration, for a period of six months, in October last year. Former chairman Rana Parveen Siddiqi had filed an appeal in the High Court, challenging the government's notification to supersede the Waqf Board.

PTI