MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 19: A two-member ministerial committee has proposed substantial cut in the honorarium of AJK Zakat Council chairman and nominal reduction in the honoraria of other discretionary posts with a view to retrenching administrative expenditures of Zakat Fund but has stopped short of recommending lay-offs in the hugely overstaffed organisation, it has been learnt.

Comprising Minister for Finance Chaudhry Latif Akbar and Minister for Zakat and Ushr Chaudhry Afsar Shahid, the committee will submit its report to Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed in the next couple of days for a final decision, sources told Dawn.

The government had raised a setup for collection, disbursement and administration of Zakat Fund in 1979 through a presidential ordinance which was converted into an Act of the Legislative Assembly in 1985.

According to this act, expenditure on Zakat Council (ZC), Zakat and Usher Department (ZUD), District and Constituency Zakat Committees (CZC) shall be met by the government, whereas honorarium of the non-official Chairman ZC, recurring expenses of ZUD staff and administrative expenditures of CZC (subject to the approval of ZC in its budget on periodic basis) shall be borne out of the Zakat Fund which shall not exceed 10 percent of total annual collection of Zakat.

However, over the years successive governments kept on making unchecked appointments for collection and disbursement of Zakat without any genuine need and in many cases without even formal creation of vacancies.

Initially, these appointments were made against a lump sum salary but after some time, they were also given pay scales as admissible to regular government servants, notwithstanding the fact that collection of Zakat continued to face a gradual decline, sources said.

The committee has recommended Rs50,000 and Rs5000 as monthly honorarium of ZC chairman and ZC member, respectively, instead of Rs635,000 and Rs9000.  It has also suggested reduction in the strength of ZC members from 14 to 10. The monthly honorarium of the head of district and constituency Zakat committees has been recommended to be Rs10,000 and Rs3000, respectively.