MUZAFFARABAD, Sept 26: The Azad Kashmir (AJK) government has placed nearly Rs20 million from Zakat profit fund at the disposal of all public office holders and treasury and opposition lawmakers for distribution among the needy and destitute in a manner whose transparency and credibility is open to question.

According to sources, Rs5 million were recently placed at the disposal of the prime minister, Rs2 million at the disposal of the president, Rs1 million at the disposal of the minister for Zakat and Ushr, Rs300,000 at the disposal of the legislative assembly speaker, Rs250,000 each at the disposal of ministers, advisers, leader of the opposition and all others who enjoyed the status of minister and Rs200,000 at the disposal of all assembly members.

Zakat profit fund is made up of the profit (interest) offered by the banks where Zakat money is deposited by the government. Spending from this fund was earlier the sole discretion of the prime minister but through an amendment to the relevant law in 1999, the prime minister’s discretion was restricted to Rs4 million. Apart from that, Rs1.5 million was placed at the disposal of the AJK president, Rs800,000 for minister for Zakat and Ushr, Rs500,000 each for secretary and chief administrator Zakat and Ushr, Rs200,000 each for all other cabinet members and Rs150,000 each for all lawmakers.

However, the allocation for all of them, except the secretary and chief administrator, was increased this year and the amount had also been transferred to the bank accounts of these dignitaries for distribution in their respective areas in the holy month of fasting. “We have issued them crossed cheques in their names and now it’s their discretion as to how and who they will distribute the money,” sources in the Zakat and Ushr department told Dawn.

However, sources said, three lawmakers were the rare exception for they had declined to accept the cheques.

Sources admitted that there was no independent system to verify if the money was truly doled out by these dignitaries to the persons it was meant for. According to sources, though a list of the recipients of alms is furnished by them to the Zakat and Ushr department it is largely a formality.

“Mostly the lists submitted by them are fictitious. Whether they distribute the entire amount or a portion of it or even keep the entire amount with them we have no mechanism to confirm it. We have to believe what they claim in the lists,” they said.

Sources said all opposition lawmakers including the former prime minister, Barrister Sultan Mehmood, and the main opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) President Chaudhry Abdul Majeed had also collected their cheques.

However, the opposition’s Sardar Khalid Ibrahim (JK People’s Party) and Chaudhry Anwaarul Haq (People’s Muslim League) and treasury’s Pir Attiqur Rehman Faizpuri have not claimed these funds and have asked the department, like previous years, to distribute the money on its own fairly and squarely.