Zakat and Ushr act of

1980
 Introduction
• As we know that , zakat is one of the five pillars of
islam and is a religious obligation for all Muslims who
meet the necessary criteria of wealth. It is not a
charitable contribution. Zakat is based on income and
the value of what one posses.
• Ushr is the 5% tax on the harvest of irrigated land and
10% tax on the harvest from the rain watered land. The
term has also been used for a 10% tax on merchandise
imported from states that taxed the muslims on their
products. Umer ibn AL-khattab was the first muslim
leader to levy ushr.
 Historical Context
• General Zia Ul Haq introduced this zakat and
ushr ordinance on june 20 1980 to bring
social,legal,economic and political institutions
of the country in agreement with the islamic
principles, values and traditions in light of
Quran and Sunnah.
• zakat was to be deducted at the rate of 2.5%
and ushr was 10% on yield of agricultural land.
 Official actors
• The official actors in zakat are many in number
but the head is chief Administrator and under
him there are Deputy secretary and
administrator zakat.These are the official
actors who are responsible for managing the
process of zakat . They are the one who are
the collectors of zakat from the people and
then use this money in different development
processes
 Unofficial actors
• So on the other side are the unofficial actors who
include common people such as molvi
community who are largely involved in this
collection process of zakat in all over the country.
There are some mafia as well who collect zakat by
giving threats to the people and use this money
for their own use. They have opened madrassas
and there they have a very big setup of this
collection of zakat. They have put boards infront
of their madrassas for zakat which cann be seen
when one passes by these madrassas.
 Interest groups
• As we know that the interest groups seek
benefit for their own cause so there are also
some interest groups in zakat aswell so these
interest groups are vocational institutions and
other non governmental organizations that
play a vital role in the policy implementation
of zakat process because in this process their
interest is always at stake.
 Policy implementation
• In Pakistan a few paid staff provide the skeletal
framework supporting the zakat organization.The
administrator general zakat and chief
administrator zakat and their subordinates are
the long term professional civil
servants.Whatever problems the government of
Pakistan have elsewhere with corruption, zakat
officials not only work in straight forward fashion,
but go to some lengths that their activities
remain respectable.
 Policy failure
• Below the provincial level there is no full time
dedicated staff assigned to zakat.At district
level the deputy commisionar decides that
what duties he can spare. There are many
flaws but the front runner is corruption in the
distribution system. Political motive for
distribution instead of addressing poverty has
crippled the mechanism of collecting and
distributing.