Sindh govt to collect details related to mosques’ sources of income

KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to initiate a process to gather information related to the sources of income of the mosques in the province.

In this regard, a form has been prepared by the Auqaf Department of the provincial government under the regime of the Financial Action Task Force to be distributed among the administration of the mosques. The forms will be used to collect information related to sources of income, average donations collected in Friday prayers, the number of shops or houses owned by the mosque, the methods used to collect donations, whether or not a receipt book is used for collecting the donations, and details related to the bank accounts of the mosque. In his response to the move, Administrator Jamia Binoria Aalimiyah in Karachi Mufti Nauman Naeem said on Saturday that they didn’t deny the need to register the mosques and do audits of their funds, but undue restrictions in this regard and seeking details of the donations would likely to cause misunderstandings between the Ulema, mosques and the government. He said the Sindh government had issued the questionnaire in haste without waiting to conclude the process of its negotiations with the Ulema and the representative body of religious seminaries. Mufti Nauman Naeem said the government should have taken the Ulema into confidence before releasing its questionnaire.

He said the government in the manner of a civilised society should have taken the relevant institutions and stakeholders into confidence before taking any such step.

He said that such steps in the past too had caused misunderstandings between the Uelma and the government.