PESHAWAR, April 18: The provincial Ushr and Zakat Department has turned the Zakat Fund, a welfare-oriented scheme, into a sort of political bribe by replacing four non-political District Zakat Committee (DZC) members with the activists of a particular party.

Provincial minister Hafiz Hashmat Ali has ordered the chairman of the DZC to replace the old members with the new ones from the Jamaat-i-Islami. He has also asked him to accommodate 28 JI members at various local Zakat committees in the district.

The DZC has been advised to accommodate Mr Sher Afsar, Qari Ayub, Qari Abdul Hadi, Dr Zahid, Mr Daud, Qari Sher Bahadar, Mr Masood Shah, Mr Nisarullah, Mr Arbab Faisal, Hakim Mohammad Younus, Mr Ghulam Mohammad, Mr Hazrat Gul, Mr Mohammad Iqbal Khalil, Mr Inayatullah, Mr Musharraf, Mr Irshad, Mr Abid, Mr Abdus Samad, Mr Ayaz Mujahid, Mr Mohammad Fiyyaz, Mr Hameed Gul, Mr Raz Mohammad, Syed Amin, Mr Mubarak Ali, Mr Khushdil Khan, Mian Anwar Said, Ms Fauzia Rana and Ms Raj Meena.

Mr Shoaib, a spokesman for the minister, told Dawn that it was not an illegal act. “If a member has a political affiliation it is his business. The DZC chairman can replace the old members with the new ones,” he added.

“The minister also wants immediate replacement of the 50 group secretaries, working for the 501 local Zakat committees, with his party activists,” said a district Zakat committee member.

A sacked district Zakat committee member told Dawn that since 1980, when Zakat system was introduced, none of the previous governments ever tried to sabotage it by imposing their workers. The local Zakat committees work under the direct supervision of the DZC.

The committees comprise one chairman and seven members (six male and one female) who are not paid for their services. All members are supposed to be enjoying good reputation in their areas. Most of them are known as apolitical entities.

The group secretaries, mostly hailing from the poor families, are paid less than Rs3,000 for office work. Now they are put in a quandary.

Earlier, Zakat committee members would recommend names of poor and deserving people as Zakat recipients. But now the new members have decided to paste the names of Zakat recipients on mosque wall in their respective areas. They think it is the only way to stop the misuse of Zakat. “It is against the spirit of Zakat to unveil names of recipients. It is a humiliation,” said a DZC member.

The DZC distributes Rs250 million through its lower-tier 501 local committees annually. Last year, the DZC failed to disburse Rs230 million Zakat fund amongst needy ones. Hundreds of deserving students could not get their scholarship amount. The government had done nothing except the removal of Maulana Shoaib, the then chairman of the DZC.

The minister has not only ordered a shake-up in the seven-member Zakat body, but also nominated his four party activists on the Peshawar Zakat Committee.