The Hindu : Kerala News : AIMPLB annual session in Bhopal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 03, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

AIMPLB annual session in Bhopal

By Our Staff Reporter

KOZHIKODE, JAN. 2. The 18th annual session of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) will be held in Bhopal in the last week of March or the first week of April.

Informed sources told The Hindu that the exact dates would be announced at the working committee of the AIMPLB to be held in January. The annual session was to be held at Manjeri in Malappuram district on December 24, 25, and 26 in 2004. But it had to be postponed on account of the political environment in the State. The reception committee headed by the chairman, Ibrahim Sulaiman Sait, and the general convener, E. Aboobaker, had sought time to make arrangements for the event.

However, the new development follows the serious differences of opinion among Muslim organisations in the State over the nomination of Mr. Aboobaker, who is a former chairman of the National Development Front (NDF) and now its supreme council member.

At the AIMPLB meeting held in Lucknow on December 25, Mr. Aboobaker in a letter addressed to the general secretary, Maulana Nizamudeen, and the assistant general secretary, Abdul Rahim Quereshi, had expressed his inability to carry on with the programme with Muslim outfits including the Jamaat-e-Islami vehemently opposing his nomination as the general convener.

Mr. Aboobaker said the AIMPLB had shifted the venue from Manjeri to Bhopal based on his request. ``The new dates will be announced later,'' he said.

The Jamaat-e-Islami at a meeting held in Kozhikode in August had questioned how Mr. Aboobaker who was leading an organisation such as the NDF had sneaked into the prestigious reception committee of the AIMPLB.

Row over appointment

The nomination of Mr. Aboobaker as general convener of the reception committee had created quite a stir among the Muslim organisations and political parties. The youth wing of the Samasta Kerala Jameyathul Ulama, a pro-Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) organisation, came out openly against the nomination and threatened not to cooperate with the annual session.

The organisation's office-bearers at a press meet in October had alleged that a section of the mainstream Muslim political party was hand in glove with the NDF to conduct the programme. Even the Samasta had to do a lot of explanation on the controversy. Efforts of Mr. Sait, who is a national level leader of the Indian National league (INL), a splinter group of the IUML, to broker a consensus among the warring sections failed to materialise. It was at this juncture that Mr. Aboobaker requested the AIMPLB to shift the venue. ``Now a new reception committee will be formed under the aegis of Muslim organisations in Madhya Pradesh,'' Mr. Aboobaker said.

Earlier, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh had been suggested as venues to hold the annual session. The lot fell for Kerala. The State would have played host to such an event for the first time, especially when the AIMPLB is slated to deliberate on matters of giving rights to women in property and drafting a standard code of conduct for marriage.

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