Sindh government is all set to legislate on a plan under which the Rs 2.5 billion Zakat funds would be utilised to establish small businesses for the deserving people to make them self-sufficient. Thanks to the landmark 18th Amendment the provincial government's annual collections on account of Zakat and Ushr have swelled by 197.6 percent or Rs 1.66 billion to Rs 2.5 billion from Rs 840 million it used to get from the federal government previously.
"We are planning to enable the needy people to start their own businesses," Minister for Zakat and Ushr Muhammad Sajid Jokhio told Sindh Assembly on Monday during the Question Hour. His statement came when Arif Mustafa Jatoi of National People's Party (NPP) asked if the government had a plan to make the needy people of Sindh self-sufficient.
"Instead of creating beggars we would enable the needy to earn a respectable livelihood for them," the minister said adding, "this would be done through amending the relevant laws for the first time after 1979." He said the legislation would be made during the ongoing session. To another supplementary question, the minister said at the end of this session the provincial relief commissioner would distribute around Rs 1.35 billion zakat among the food affectees.
Sardar Ahmed of MQM, responding in place of Minister for Auqaf Abdul Haseeb Khan, told the house that at least 180 acres of the department's land in Mirpurkhas was lying vacant for years due to non-availability of water. Senoiur Minister Pir Mazharul Haque and Law Minister Ayaz Soomro objected when the opposition member Arif Jatoi lashed out at the zakat minister for not being able to answer his starred question despite 13 reminders. "Details of irregularities detected in District Zakat Committees during the period from July 2008 to May 2009," reads the query.
"You name Pakistan and you have a media report on corruption," the NPP leader said adding the minister had even failed to answer the members' questions on corruption what to talk of eradicating the menace form his department. The speaker was supportive to Jatoi's argument with the minister assuring that he would furnish the answer during the current session.