Provincial Zakat Council approves grant for poor students

Lahore: Provincial Zakat Council has granted approval to release 3 crore 97 lakh, 51 thousand 236 rupees for the boy and girl students of 23 thousand 526 students of 409 educational institutions of 17 districts of Punjab while a sum of Rs.66 lak 13 thousand 74 rupees will be given to 2451 deserving boy and girl students of 25 seminaries of two districts for the year 2013-14.

This decision was taken in a meeting presided over by Chairman Provincial Zakat Council Justice (Retd.) Akhtar Hassan, here today. Habib ur Rehman Gillani, Secretary Zakat & Ushr, Muhammad Yousaf Butt Administrator Zakat Punjab, Shabbir Hussain Deputy Secretary Zakat & Ushr Department, members of the council Hafiz Fazal Raheem Ashrafi, Hafiz Zubair Ahmed Zaheer, Azhar Farooqi, Mohtarma Tanveer Kauser as well as officers of Local Government, Finance, and Social Welfare Departments were also present.

The Provincial Zakat Council decided to give extension upto 31 August 2014 to such District Zakat Committees the tenure of which is ending in June-July 2014.

The Provincial Zakat Council directed to complete the process of constitution of Local Zakat Committees according to the rules and regulations in the districts where Local Zakat Committees have not been formed.

The Council also gave approval to the nomination of Ch. Awais s/o Abdul Hameed and Sh. Muhammad Afzal s/o Haji Muhammad Amin as Member District Zakat Committee for the remaining period on vacant posts of Member District Zakat Committee in district Sahiwal.

The council also decided to launch publicity campaign and take other steps for making the system of payment of zakat fund easzy and increasing the receipt of Zakat voluntarily.

Provincial Zakat Council expressed satisfaction over different heads of Mustahqeen-e-Zakat including subsistence allowance, financial assistance of the blind Mustahqeen, free of cost treatment in the hospitals, marriage grant to the poor women and provision of educational scholarships to the deserving students of schools, colleges, seminaries and vocational training institutions.