KUALA LUMPUR: The draft bill on a wakaf act which will allow better management of endowments and be a model for state wakaf laws will be tabled in Parliament at the end of this year.
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Fuziah Salleh (pix) said the Attorney-General’s Chambers is now in the final stages of drafting the Federal Territory Wakaf Bill before presenting it to the Cabinet.
“At present, we have a wakaf enactment in each state and they differ from each other. We hope the Federal Territory Wakaf Act will be the model to streamline wakaf laws in all the states,” she told reporters after launching the 7th Global Waqf Conference 2019 (GWC2019)) here today,
Also present was the Sultan of Sokoto, Nigeria, Sultan Muhammadu Sa’adu Abubakar III and Chairman of the Al-Madinah International University, Prince Dr Bandar bin Salman bin Muhammad Al-Saud.
Earlier, Fuziah witnessed the exchange of memorandums of understanding between six major sponsors of GWC2019.
She said the bill will allow a better understanding of the regulations and monitoring of wakaf funds in the country.
“We hope to have a law which will look at the issue of integrity so that the wakaf is not misused. Sometimes people misuse the word ‘wakaf’ to collect donations but there is no way to control it, we cannot do anything (because there are no laws).
“This will enable us to prevent the misuse of the word ‘wakaf’. We want to give Muslims the chance to implement the wakaf in accordance with the religion,” she said.
GWC2019 was organised by the Al-Madinah International University in collaboration with Islamic Development Bank, Finterra, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and University Tun Abdul Razak (Unirazak). — Bernama
