COLOMBO : Reacting to the news report carried in Colombo Times, regarding the dissolution of the Wakf Board, President Counsel M M Zuhair former MP said the Buddhasasana Minister has no powers under the Mosque Act to suspend or remove any member of the Wakf Board except on grounds of proven incompetence of the member and being ‘satisfied’ thereof after a due inquiry.” When the entire country is in a massive ‘aragalaya’ against an incompetent government that had brought the people to the point of starvation, how can the Minister in such a government have the competence to judge the competence of the Wakf Board,?”Zuhair challenged
“ The Minister of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Vidura Wickremanayake has crippled the workings of the Wakf Board of Sri Lanka, a statutory body appointed under the Muslim Mosques and Charitable Trusts or Wakfs Act of 1956, putting the supervision of the trustee-administration of the country’s mosques and charitable trusts in jeopardy, giving no reasons for removing the Chairman Sabry Halimdeen and all its seven members in an unlawful, unwarranted and unacceptable manner.Thus is in violation of the ‘Peoples’ Aragalaya’ concept of national & religious unity and cognitive pluralism,he added.
He further said that at a time when Muslims are at Haj prayers in Mosques, amidst an ‘incompetently’ unresolved fuel crisis, why is the Minister in charge of Buddhist Affairs interfering in Mosque affairs without any public announcement at least of the reasons therefor or complying with due process on matters which Parliament had statutorily vested in an independent Board, the decisions of which are subject to an appeal to the Wakf Tribunal appointed by the Judicial Service Commission and are also further subject to the jurisdiction of the superior courts of our country?
Questions have been raised by concerned Muslims, whether the Buddhasasana Ministry is trying once again to interfere in Mosque matters through circulars as it did in 2008 and 2009 leading to ethno religious tensions and confrontations that led to avoidable radicalisation and counter radicalisation instead of uniting the country and all its peoples. Some of these related matters are pending in our courts and are being monitored by international watch dogs.
Questions have also been raised whether the Wakf Board was being buckled because of attempts to reopen the religious prayer room at the Mahara prison and the Narahenpita Mosque closed by the authorities for some years now without any acceptable reason. Remember the harassment of Dr Shafi Shihabdeen?
When the country is struggling to obtain fuel and gas from anywhere in the world, including from Muslim countries such as Malaysia, Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia, was Wickremanayake displaying his incompetence to manage his Ministry by wrongfully and unlawfully silencing the Wakf Board into in- action? Remember the groundless closure of the UN recognized Qatar Charity in Colombo?
At a time when the country wide peoples’ aragalaya had reached a critical phase amidst wide support from all truly Sri Lankan communities committed to national and religious unity, cognitive pluralism and peaceful co-existence why is Wickramanayake violating Article 9 and 10 of the Constitution and alerting the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights?