BJP's Jagdambika Pal to head joint panel on contentious Waqf bill

New Delhi, Aug 13 (PTI) Senior BJP Lok Sabha member Jagdambika Pal was on Tuesday named chairperson of the joint committee of Parliament, which will examine the contentious Waqf (Amendment) Bill.

A Lok Sabha notification said Speaker Om Birla appointed Pal as the head of the 31-member committee.

Amid protests by the opposition in the Lok Sabha on its provisions, the government had decided to refer the bill to a joint committee of the two Houses.

The joint panel has 31 members -- 21 from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha -- and will submit its report by the next session.

The 73-year-old Pal is a fourth-term MP from Uttar Pradesh and is seen as a lawmaker who enjoys warm cross-party relations.

The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Friday last adopted a motion moved by Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, who also holds the parliamentary affairs portfolio, naming the members to be part of the committee.

A formal notification naming Pal as the chairperson of the joint committee is set to be issued shortly, the officials said.

In the Lower House, 12 members of the panel are from the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including eight from the BJP, and nine from the opposition. In the Upper House, four are from the BJP, four from the opposition, one from the YSRCP, which has opposed the Bill, and one is a nominated member.

The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday last and referred to a joint committee of Parliament after a heated debate, with the government asserting the proposed law did not intend to interfere with the functioning of mosques and the opposition calling it targeting of Muslims and an attack on the Constitution.

The committee has been asked to submit its report to Lok Sabha by the last day of the first week of the next session, Rijiju said. PTI