Who needs a diploma to oversee charity?

LAHORE: The provincial government intends to amend the law on Zakat and Ushr to remove the academic qualification (matriculate) for the members and chairmen of the Local Zakat Committees (LZC), The Express Tribune has learnt.

Section 18 of the Zakat and Ushr Ordinance, 1980, provides for seven adult Muslims, having a secondary school certificate each and a reputation for piety, to be nominated as LZC members. There is also a provision for two women members.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had issued a directive to the Zakat and Ushr Department soon after taking oath of office for the constitution of 25,267 LZCs in the province by May 16, this year. However, the process was slow, with only 14,444 committees formed within the stipulated period. Departmental officials have pleaded that the remaining 10,823 committees could not be completed on account of the matriculation requirement.

Amer Sultan Cheema, of the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam), however, offered another explanation. He alleged that parliamentarians from the chief minister’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), were asked to recommend names for the purpose. He said these parliamentarians in turn asked party conveners to identify suitable people – a euphemism for trusted party workers. Cheema said committees could not be formed where enough matriculate PML-N workers could not be found. He said elections had been postponed in areas where the government was unable to manufacture a PML-N majority. He feared that once the election deadline passed, the government would appoint its favourites as administrators to head the LZCs.

Interestingly, some leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), a partner in the coalition government, have endorsed the narrative. Muhammad Hafeez Akhtar Chaudhary, a PPP lawmaker from Sahiwal, said he and his colleagues had taken up the matter with the party leadership. He said all the nominations in his district so far were from the PML-N and expressed his apprehension that the matriculation condition was being abolished only to accommodate more PML-N workers.

Khosa committee

Following the 18th Amend-ment to the Constitution, which abolished the Concur-rent List, the chief minister constituted a seven-member committee headed by his senior adviser, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa, to draft a new Zakat and Ushr law for the province. Three of the remaining members of the committee are PML-N lawmakers, three are government officials.

The committee has been assigned the task of determining the authority and responsibility of the provincial government over the management of Zakat in the province; designing an effective monitoring and evaluation system for the distribution of Zakat; defining the supervisory role of public representatives and eminent persons in the filed of social work and poverty elimination; providing checks and balances in the functioning of the Provincial Zakat Council, District Zakat Committees and Local Zakat Committees. A PPP leader pointed out, with some annoyance, that no PPP lawmakers were included “in violation of the 60:40 sharing formula between the both coalition partners”.

The committee has held several meetings to discuss various aspects of collection and distribution of Zakat. It was observed in one of the meetings that keeping the condition for matriculation may become a hurdle to the formation of local committees in some areas. The Zakat and Ushr secretary was therefore directed to submit a summary to the chief minister for an amendment in the 1980 law. The summary included the sentence: “The provincial government may introduce an ordinance on Zakat and Ushr whereby the condition of secondary school certificate for members and chairmen … should be waived immediately.” Karim Bakhsh Abid, the secretary, told The Express Tribune, the new law was at the drafting stage.

The secretary also said the committees had been elected by notable citizens of the respective areas. He said the elections had been fair and that elections had not been held where matriculate candidates were not available.

Muhammad Iqbal, the PRO to Zakat and Ushr Minister, Haji Ihsanud Din, denied any irregularities in the formation of the LZCs. He said the process was nearing completion and was being held up only by some appeals.

Senator Pervaiz Rashid, the Punjab government spokesperson, dismissed the criticism as “politically motivated”. He said the matriculation condition was being removed because it would exclude a large number of otherwise eligible women in rural areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28th, 2010.