May 31, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 25, 1429

ISLAMBAD, May 30: A cabinet subcommittee on Zakat has recommended distribution of Zakat funds among the provinces on the basis of backwardness and poverty, instead of population.

The committee, at a meeting presided over by Minister for Religious Affairs, Zakat and Ushr Syed Khurshid Shah, reviewed the Zakat Ushr Ordinance, 1980, and said that it needed to be changed because it did not meet the present day requirements.

The meeting suggested structural changes in provincial Zakat councils and district and local Zakat committees.

Recommendations of a committee constituted in 2004 for reviewing the Zakat system were considered by the cabinet in a meeting on May 21. It termed the recommendations perfunctory and decided to constitute a subcommittee for an overall review of the system.

Sindh and Balochistan governments have been advised to set up vocational training councils and training institutes on the pattern of the Punjab Vocational Training Council.