JOIN USCouncil panel indicts Qamar-ul-Islam for breach of privilege
The privilege committee of the Legislative Council has indicted Minister for Minority Welfare and Wakf, Qamar-ul-Islam, for breach of privilege in his written reply on the wakf property scam. The committee has left it to the discretion of the Council to take action against him.
The committee’s chairman, MLC G Madhusudhan of the BJP, on Wednesday tabled the report which states that Islam deliberately misled the House while giving a written reply on the status of the special report on wakf scam.
The report was submitted in 2012 by the then chairman of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission (KSMC), Anwar Manipaddy. Islam had given the reply to two MLCs Capt Ganesh Karnik and Monappa Bhandari in the July 2013 session of the Council.
In its 288-page report, mainly consisting of documentary evidence about the meetings, proceedings and annexure about the wakf scam, the committee has noted that Islam read out his “own statement” when he said the report was before the Cabinet for consideration.
While Islam told the House that the wakf scam report was the “report of an individual, not the entire commission’s”, it had emerged that the whole commission staff had availed themselves of travel and dearness allowance for preparing the report, the committee observed.
The committee also said it had summoned the then secretary of the KSMC, Ateeq Ahmed (KAS), to furnish details about the entire preparation of the report. Upon questioning, he named the minister and other high-ranking public representatives, including a former chief minister and other MLAs, involved during that period. As a result, Ahmed had alleged, Islam deliberately tried to mislead the house.
The committee has observed that the minister was given a chance to rectify his statement, but he stood by it in the Council. It has recommended that the government immediately table the Manipaddy report, as it was not referred to any joint house committee, and ensure that action is initiated based on it against the guilty.
The committee noted that there was complete veracity in the special report, and the scam ran into over Rs one lakh crore.