Draft pact to be ready by Nov-end: SWB chief
LUCKNOW: The UP Shia Central Waqf Board (UPSCWB) said on Monday it was drafting an agreement to negotiate a peaceful settlement to Ram Janam BhoomiBabri Masjid dispute in Ayodhya and the pact would be ready by November-end.
“I have discussed the terms and conditions for an out-ofcourt settlement with the mahants of Ayodhya and all other petitioners. Another meeting with them is due by next week to give final touches to the accord,” Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi told HT.
Rizvi said he would be going to the temple town soon to give shape to the draft agreement.
“I would then call a meeting of the Waqf Board to obtain consent of the members to the proposal before making it public,” he said.
“Wait till December 6, by when something concrete would materialize,” was his cryptic reply when pressed further to reveal the details of the draft pact.
Rizvi, who has made it clear that he was amenable to building
› I have discussed the terms and conditions for an outofcourt settlement with the mahants of Ayodhya and all other petitioners. Another meeting with them is due by next week to give final touches to the accord WASEEM RIZVI, Shia Waqf Board chairman
a mosque away from the disputed site in a Muslim-dominated area, said he had been fully authorized by the Board to take a call in the matter.
“Partitioning the disputed land equally among three parties would not be a peaceful and lasting solution to the problem as decided by the Allahabad high court,” he said.
In September 2010, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court had ruled in favour of partitioning the disputed 2.77-acre land equally among three parties— the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla (infant Lord Ram), represented by the Hindu Mahasabha.
The Shia Waqf Board impleaded itself as a party in the Ayodhya case when it submitted a 30-page affidavit to the Supreme Court on August 8, 2017 staking its claim to Babri Masjid, which it said was a Shia mosque.
The board said that rather than partitioning the site in Ayodhya between the various claimants, the proposed mosque could be located at a reasonable distance from the disputed site to avoid any clashes in the future.
On being asked whether he would also involve Sunni Cental Waqf Board, the main party in the title suit, Rizvi said he would not invite them and he alone was entitled to negotiate with other stakeholders.
The controversial chairman against whom the Central Waqf Council has levelled corruption, embezzlement charges and mismanagement of waqf properties had on October 31 met Art of Living Founder Sri Sri Ravishankar also for a negotiated settlement.