MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 2: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Zakat Council has approved its budget of Rs410 million for the current year, an official said here the other day.

The budget was approved at a council meeting, held here on Tuesday and presided over by its chairman, Chaudhry Abdul Aziz. The meeting was attended by finance secretary, officials of the account general’s office, the Zakat and Ushr department and four representatives of religious scholars, besides one representative each from the seven AJK districts.

The chief administrator of the Zakat and Ushr department, Mohammad Saeed Mughal, told reporters after the meeting that a special feature of the budget was the formulation of strict rules and regulations for expenditures under different heads. Steps had also been proposed to make expenditures in accordance with the Islamic laws, he added.

Giving a breakdown of the allocations, he said Rs210 million had been earmarked for distribution among the needy through local Zakat committees.

According to the official, the monthly stipend of Madaris students has been increased to Rs300. Funds have been allocated to buy clothes for these students twice a year.

The council has also allocated Rs18 million for the medical treatment of the poor and the needy people. The fund would be provided as grant to different state-run hospitals. Besides, an amount of Rs700,000, which was to be spent through the Fauji Foundation, have been allocated to provide artificial limbs to those people, who have been maimed by Indian shelling.

An amount of Rs4.1 million has also been earmarked for the marriages of poor and orphaned girls. The money would be distributed equally among 29 constituencies through the district Zakat and Ushr committees’s chairmen. The amount of dowry fund has been increased from Rs5,000 to Rs7,000.

He said a certain amount, in proportion to the population of the area, had been placed at the disposal of the chairmen of the district Zakat and Ushr committees for the provision of immediate relief to the needy.