Out of 25 districts, the Zakat and Ushr Council is yet to announce chairpersons for four districts. PHOTO: FILE
Differences have surfaced among coalition partners of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government over the selection of zakat and ushr district committees chairpersons.
Out of 25 districts, the Zakat and Ushr Council is yet to announce chairpersons for four districts. The chairperson will be responsible for disbursing collected zakat among the impoverished under several health, education, skill development, and student scholarship programmes.
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Nowshera Naib Amir Inayatur Rehman told The Express Tribune his party disagreed with the developments and decisions taken by the PTI-led government in this regard.
“PTI promised coalition partners at the time of oath taking that no party will interfere in each other’s ministries, however, they have failed to live up to their promise,” he said.
Every ministry was supposed to have autonomous powers in taking their own decisions and ministers from other departments were supposed to abstain from influencing decisions of other ministries, said Rehman.
Similarly, the minister for zakat and ushr is supposed to have complete autonomy over selecting chairs for committees. “In Nowshera, adviser to the chief minister for excise and taxation interfered in the selection of the district’s zakat committee chair. My name had initially been forwarded to the department as committee chair but the seat is still vacant,” complained Rehman.
No reason has been provided to him as to why the district’s chairperson seat was still unoccupied even though appointments have already been made for chairs in other districts.
Another JI district leader told The Express Tribune, “The PTI has imposed ‘martial law’ in Nowshera; they do not consult JI in any government projects.” He added while the ‘so-called’ alliance remains in Nowshera, JI was not being taken onboard in key decisions.
Meanwhile, the provincial Zakat and Ushr Council announced chairmen for 21 districts in K-P on Friday.
Masood Jan has been appointed as the chairman of the Charsadda district zakat committee, Azeemuddin for Mardan, Muhammad Sohail for Malakanad, Abdul Ghaffar for Buner, Khurshid Iqbal for Swat, Zarawar Khan for Lower Dir, Hanifullah Advocate for Upper Dir, Bakht Karam for Shangla, Rehmat Naeem for Chitral, Ishtiaq Ahmad for Kohat, Haji Abdul Nazir for Hangu, Ziauddin for Karak, Noorul Amin Khan for Bannu, Maulana Asadullah Khan for Lakki Marwat, Fazlur Rehman Baloch for DI Khan, Muhammad Farid for Tank, Muhammad Khalid for Battagram, Qazi Muhammad Arshad Advocate for Abbottabad, Nadir Khan for Mansehra, Akhtar Zaman Khan for Haripur, and Siraj Muhammad for the Torghar district zakat committee.
According to the same statement, the council approved Rs670 million for zakat and ushr for the fiscal year 2013-14. It was mentioned 50% of the budget will be reserved for district hospitals and other welfare organisations.
K-P Minister for Religious Affairs, Zakat and Ushr Habibur Rahman claimed the eight-member council has been transparent in selecting chairpersons and rejected reports of interference from other ministries.
The minister said, “The reason why seats remain vacant in four districts is because of incomplete documentation in Nowshera, Peshawar and Swabi whereas two names which were received for Kohistan did not meet the criteria for the council.”
He added a final list of all district chairs along with the notification for their selection will be issued soon. Rahman also rejected claims of rifts between the coalition partners on the issue of selecting chairpersons.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 30th, 2013.
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