Sindh to launch new system for distribution of zakat allowance

Sindh Zakat and Ushr Minister Sohail Anwar Khan Siyal has said that a plan is afoot to distribute an amount of Rs1.4 billion as subsistence allowance among 100,000 deserving people in the province on an annual basis through a new system of ‘Benazir Muawinat Cards’.

The minister stated this on Tuesday while talking to the media on the occasion of the signing of an agreement between the Sindh Zakat Department and the Sindh Bank for launching the system of bio-metric verification and activation of the new Benazir Muawinat Cards for disbursement of the subsistence allowance among deserving people of Sindh.

The provincial minister said the new system of ‘Benazir Muawinat Cards’ would enable the Sindh government to disburse zakat among deserving people of the province in a transparent manner.

He said the process of disbursement of zakat was being made transparent and easy on the directives of the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. He said the distribution of zakat would only take place after bio-metric verification of the prospective beneficiaries under the system of the National Database and Registration Authority.

He said the Sindh government would bear all the expenses to be borne on the system of Nadra’s biometric verification. He said a sum of Rs5 million would be reserved on an annual basis to bear such expenses related to the Nadra’s system.

He said that beneficiaries of the new system would be required to visit any branch of the Sindh Bak along with their ‘Benazir Muawinat Card’ and their Computerised National Identity Card as after the bio-metric verification, they would be given the amount.

He said such a method would spare the zakat beneficiaries from the hassle of visiting a number of government offices. The provincial minister said the database of the zakat beneficiaries would be updated on the recommendations of the district zakat councils.