KARACHI, Jan 30: Sindh minister for religious affairs, Zakat and Auqaf, Maulana Mohammad Wali Razi, said on Wednesday that the newly-introduced system of permanent rehabilitation of eligible people through the Zakat fund would help facilitate 25,000 deserving persons in Sindh and reduce their dependence on Zakat.
“It is a big shift from the old system which was producing dependents on Zakat. Under the new system people are assisted with Rs10,000 to Rs50,000 to establish their own livelihood”, he said while addressing a press conference in Karachi.
He said the government had planned to spend Rs5 billion annually on that programme, out of which the Sindh share would be around Rs1 billion.
Explaining the salient features of the programme, he said the amount which would be disbursed through banks and post offices would not only enable a large number of eligible people to pass their lives respectably through self-earnings, but also generate economic activities in the province, as the amount to be drawn by Mustehqeen was destined to roll into the local market.
The minister said that about Rs400 million had been released to the 7069 district Zakat committees in Sindh for disbursement among Mustehqeen from July 2001.
Moreover, he said, all the national hospitals as well the local ones in the province were receiving Zakat funds. He said that earlier Rs5000 were given to poor girls for their marriages, the amount had now been increased to Rs10,000.
He said the system of Zakat had been around for the last 22 years, but without any significant result.
“Zakat committees were constituted to advance the political interests of ruling parties and none of the involved persons was held accountable for mismanagement and embezzlement,” he said.
Describing the working of the Auqaf department, the minister said its primary task was to maintain, manage and regulate shrines, mosques and other religious places. He said there were 78 Mazars and 129 mosques managed by the department.
He said the maintenance of all those religious places was done through the income of Auqaf accrued mainly from big Mazars which were fifteen in number. Similarly, he said, the maintenance of more than 70 mosques was done from the resources of big mazars and mosques as the donations received at those places were quite sufficient. He said the total income of the Auqaf during the previous year was around 60 million.
Syed Wali Razi said that the development work at the Mazar Qalandar Shahbaz was initiated with an expenditure of 4.7 million. Besides, Rs10 million were also released for the Mazar’s proper development.
He said that uplift work at the Abdullah Ghazi Mazar in Karachi would also be expedited as a committee in that regard had been set up. It would be headed by Sindh chief secretary, Jawaid Ashraf Hussain.
He said efforts were being made to make the directorate of minority affairs functional to enable the minorities to play their due role.
The minister said that owing to the efforts of the department, the federal government had included 17 schemes relating to minorities from Sindh in the federal government’s special grant for the welfare and uplift of the minorities.
He said that out of these schemes 22 development ones for the minorities had been approved by the government with an annual cost of Rs6.618 million.
Sindh secretary for religious affairs and Auqaf, Fasihuddin Khan, and administrator Auqaf department Sindh, Qabool Ahmad Sheikh, also attended the occasion.—PPI
