AYODHYA VERDICTKey Muslim litigant says no to review as AIMPLB gets set to decide today

LUCKNOW/BAREILLY Ahead of its crucial meeting on Sunday, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) met Muslim litigants in Lucknow to know their views before taking a final call on whether or not to go for a review of the Supreme Court verdict in the Ayodhya case.

“The two important items on AIMPLB’s agenda at tomorrow’s (Sunday) meeting are to take a decision on challenging the Ayodhya verdict and decide whether or not to accept the five-acre alternative land as directed by the apex court,” said Kamal Farooqui, an AIMPLB member.

He said apart from members of the executive body, the Board has also invited its legal experts and advocates of Muslim litigants, who fought the Ayodhya case, for the brainstorming session to be held at the Lucknow-based Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulema.

Since the AIMPLB was not a direct party in the Ayodhya case, it would have to rope in at least one out of the total eight Muslim litigants if it decides to go for a review, which now seems almost certain.

But Iqbal Ansari, whose father Hashim Ansari of Ayodhya was one of the first and oldest litigants in the case, has decided not to challenge the Ayodhya verdict, come what may. “Yeh naqli dadhi aur naqli topi wale kuch bhi kahen jo hona tha wo ho gaya, hame review me nahi jana hai (These people with fake beard and cap may say whatever they have to say but I will not go for a review of the Supreme Court verdict),” he said emphatically.

Ansari said he had got a call from AIMPLB secretary Zafaryab Jilani and he had conveyed his stand to him.

While the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board (UPSCWB) has already made its stand clear that it has accepted the verdict and there was no scope or ground to challenge it, another Muslim litigant Haji Mehboob also echoed similar sentiments.

“Meri dili khwahish to yehi hai ki hame faisal maan lena chahiye aur (review) me nahi jaan chahiye (It is my genuine desire that we should accept the verdict and not go for a review of the order), he said.

Mehmoob, incidentally, met Maulana Salman Nadvi, another cleric who was in favour of solving the Ayodhya dispute through talks and is now in favour of accepting the court verdict, in Lucknow on Saturday.

Mohd Umar, another Muslim litigant of Ayodhya, who met Jilani in Lucknow on Saturday, however, said he would abide by whatever decision the Board takes on Sunday. “There are some inconsistencies in the verdict and I feel there is a scope for correction. I will go by whatever my seniors in the AIMPLB tell me to do,” he said.

Of the remaining four litigants, Maulana Arshad Rashidi (state chief of Jamait-e-Ulama Hind), Maulana Hifzur Rehman, Maulana Hisbullah and Misbahuddin are expected to tow the AIMPLB line.