ISLAMABAD: The provincial government has constituted the Punjab Baitul Maal Council by appointing 11 new members most of whom are the PTI office-bearers including a caretaker provincial minister for information and broadcasting.
The Punjab Baitul Maal has a total annual budget of Rs100 million and the new management has requested enhancement in the annual budget up to Rs1 billion.
The provincial government has agreed to increase the budget and a proposal in this regard is being prepared by the Bait-ul-Maal management. The proposal will be submitted to the CM Secretariat soon. With the approval of proposal, the Bait-ul-Maal will be a lucrative body in the province.
As per the notification issued by the Chief Minister’s Office, a total of 15 members have been appointed including four official members. The remaining 11 members from the private sector include Malik Muhammad Azam Ameen Punjab Bait-ul Maal, Aftab Ahmed, Ahmed Waqas Riaz, Malik Iqbal Saqib, Sohrab Khan, Muhammad Iqbal Khan, Muhammad Yasin Khan, Mamoona Hussain, Fozia Abbas Naseem, Farhat Khalid and Dr Najma Perveen.
The News conducted a research to find out the background of these individuals appointed as the council members. According to the Bait-ul-Maal Act 1991, the council members should be prominent social workers or educationists. However, as per the background information, majority of them are the PTI office-bearers.
Malik Muhammad Azam, Ameen/ Head of the Punjab Bait-ul- Maal, has served the PTI as deputy secretary general and deputy secretary information of PTI Punjab. The government appointed him as Head/ Ameen of Punjab Bait-ul-Maal in June 2019.
The council has three members from Dera Ghazi Khan. Two out of three members are said to be relatives of the senior most Punjab minister whereas the third one is the party office-bearer in DG Khan. A well-placed source informed The News that these three names have been recommended by the senior most minister.
Malik Muhammad Iqbal Saqib is a lawyer by profession in Dera Ghazi Khan. He is PTI’s district president and now appointed as member of Punjab Bait-ul-Maal Council.
Sohrab Khan is a relative of the minister. According to sources, Sohrab has served the Border Military Police (BMP) and after his retirement he was now practicing law. Sources close to minister’s family said that he had no blood relation with the minister but he was from the same clan and had good family terms with them.
Similarly, Muhammad Iqbal Khan is a retired bureaucrat hailing from Dera Ghazi Khan. He is from the minister’s clan and his name was also recommended by the minister.
Another member of the council, Ahmed Waqas Riaz, was appointed caretaker information minister of Punjab in 2018. His name has been approved for the Punjab Bait-ul Maal council by the PTI-led Punjab government.
Miss Fouzia Abbas Naseem has also been appointed as a member of Punjab Bait-ul-Maal Council. She has served as the district president PTI Women Wing, Rahim Yar Khan. Mamoona Hussain has served as vice-president PTI Women Wing Central Punjab. She has also been appointed as member of the Punjab Bait-ul-Maal Council.
Miss Farhat Khalid has served the development sector but she is an active PTI worker. She has also been made a member of the council.
Dr Najma Perveen is an educationist whereas Mr Aftab Ahmed is a businessman from Faisalabad. Similarly, Muhammad Yasin Khan is the executive director of Sundas Foundation — a non-governmental organisation. According to the Punjab Baitul Mal Act 1991, the Punjab chief minister nominates the head of the council, who is called ‘Ameen’.
Following the nomination, the chief minister names another 14 members of the council with the consultation of Ameen. While four among the said 14 are government officials, the other 10 are unofficial members, mostly social workers who are renowned in the fields of education and health or are committed to the cause of public welfare.
When contacted, Malik Muhammad Azam said it was true that majority of the members of the council were from the PTI. However, he said all of the members had sufficient experience of social work.
“During the PML-N regime, all the council members were MNAs and MPAs from the ruling party. The PTI government has changed this tradition and appointed those who have experience of social work so that they can serve the people in a better way”, he commented.
Asked whether the annual budget of Punjab Bait-ul-Maal was being enhanced, Azam confirmed that Rs100 million was peanuts for the entire province.
“We have requested the provincial government to increase the budget up to Rs1 billion this year. Next year it will be enhanced further.” To a question about the three names from DG khan, Azam said these people had been selected on the basis of their social work and the senior most minister had played no role in it.
Asked if the council members had any perks and privileges, he said there were no perks and privileges for the members except TA/DA which will be given only to those coming from outside Lahore.
During the PML-N tenure the following were the council members. MNA Nighat Parveen from Rawalpindi, MNA Perveen Masood Bhatti from Bahawalpur, MPA Manshaullah from Sialkot, MNA Shahnaz Saleem from Dera Ghazi Khan, MNA Mehar Ishtiaq Ahmed from Lahore, MNA Chaudhry Hamid Hameed from Sargodha, ex-MNA Haji Irfan Daha from Multan, MNA Khalida Mansoor from Faisalabad and MNA Chaudhry Muhammad Munir Azhar from Sahiwal.