PESHAWAR: Nomination of JI workers to Zakat bodies flayed
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, April 19: Major political parties have condemned the dissolution of six local Zakat committees and nomination of 28 Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) workers on the District Zakat Committee (DZC) by NWFP Ushr and Zakat Minister Hafiz Hashmat Ali.
Speaking at a joint conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Saturday, a city councillor and ANP leader Rehmatullah Khan; president PPP, Shaheen Town, Bahadar Khan; general secretary of the JUI-F, Shaheen Town, Dr Waheed Gul; and Jan Mohammad of the PPP-S, alleged that the minister had violated the Zakat and Ushr Rules, 1979, and dissolved the elected Zakat committees of Bostanabad, Rasheed Town, Amirpura, Dhaki Dalgran and Akhunabad.
They alleged that the minister had made nominations on all the six Zakat committees from the JI ranks, which was a violation of the government rules.
The JI was running a parallel system in the coalition government to expand its political base, in the name of Zakat committees, in the strongholds of other political parties, they said.
The minister, they said, had nominated 27 JI activists, from all over the city, as DZC members. According to the rules, each DZC comprised seven members, they added.
The replacement of honest and reputed members with the Jamaat activists had exposed the right-wing radicalism of the JI, which, they said, wanted to politicise the welfare-oriented Zakat system.
They further said: “We have decided to take this matter to the superior court. We will not allow any religious organisation to temper with the Zakat system and promote its own political agenda in the garb of Zakat.”
They said people used to elect honest and reputed members on the committees but the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) minister had nominated his party workers on them. The minister wanted to impose his party men through back door on Zakat committees, which was unacceptable to the people, they added.
The MMA minister, they alleged, had turned a welfare fund into a political bribe to promote his party.
