Mumbai, Jan 18 (PTI): Maharashtra government has removed the state's Minorities Commission Chairman Munaf Hakim midway through his tenure, days after he announced plans for conducting a survey to ascertain the number of Muslims in jails.

Hakim, who belongs to Sharad Pawar's NCP, said no reason was cited by the government for his removal.

"They (government) don't want any interference. My tenure was for five years and I had completed half of it. I was given neither a show cause notice nor a chance to explain my stance (on the jail survey)," Hakim, who was appointed to the post in August 2012, told PTI by phone from Satara.

"The government has given autonomy to the Commission not for being submissive to the regime. I should have been give a chance to explain," he said.

Hakim said his successor Aamir Saheb assumed charge at 10 pm on Thursday. "What was the tearing hurry to take charge at night," he wondered.

Sources in the administration, however, defended the decision, saying Hakim was a "political appointee" of the previous Congress-NCP dispensation and that the new BJP-Shiv Sena government had the prerogative to appoint a new head of the panel.

"It is a common practice for new governments to fill these positions with their own representatives. The same process has been followed here. The commissioning of the study was just a trigger," an official said on condition of anonymity.

Hakim had recently announced plans to commission a survey by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to determine the number of Muslims in Maharashtra's jails and the charges under which they had been arrested.

"A similar report was undertaken in 2011. I decided to commission a fresh study and told the government that the panel was well within its right to commission the survey," he said.