Asaduddin Owaisi questions Waqf Bill JPC Chairman's Karnataka visit

Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday questioned the visit of Chairman of the Joint Committee of Parliament on Waqf (amendment bill) Jagdambika Pal to Karnataka and “hoped” that the Lok Sabha Speaker would take note of his “behaviour”.

The Chairman cannot act unilaterally and the committee has to act collectively, he said.

“The Chairman of the Joint Working Committee on the Waqf Bill 2024 recently went to Karnataka to look into some local matter. The Committee does not have investigation powers, its job is to look into the Bill alone,” Owaisi said on ‘X’.

He said the panel had already conducted a consultation in Karnataka.

He was not in a position to explain the “questionable conduct” of the Chairman since the formation of the committee as he was bound by parliamentary procedures, he said.

“I hope @speakerloksabha will take notice of the Chairman’s behaviour,” the Hyderabad MP said.

Over 500 petitions were received by Jagdambika Pal on Thursday from farmers in Karnataka’s northern districts, who alleged that their lands were marked as Waqf properties, according to Bengaluru South BJP MP Tejasvi Surya’s office.

Pal, along with Surya, also a JCP member, visited Hubballi, Vijayapura and Belagavi, during which he met farmers and members of various organisations who complained that their lands were being claimed by the State Waqf Board.