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Zakat being unlawfully deducted from accounts: SC
ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court judge Justice Nasirul Mulk said on Monday that according to information received, the country's Zakat money was used in all the wrong places.Hearing a case regarding the regularisation of contractual employees of the Zakat Department, he said Zakat funds were used to hold referendums, and sometimes even to create and make governments.
The Supreme Court said Zakat money was being unlawfully deducted from customers' accounts without their authorisation. A three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk heard the case. Advocates general from all provinces and Tariq Mehmood, counsel for the Zakat Department, appeared before the bench.
The Sindh advocate general told the court that after the implementation of the 18th Amendment, the Sindh Zakat Department was receiving such a little amount that they were incapable of paying salaries to the Zakat staff.
Justice Nasir said after the passage of the 18th Amendment and the subsequent transfer of departments to the provinces, the Zakat system in the country had been sorely disrupted.
The court adjourned its hearing until the last week of April, and called for the Zakat system in the country to undergo a thorough cleansing. The court also called for Zakat department officials to be paid their salaries, and said a decision would be given after listening views of all advocates general from the attorney general.
Courtesy www.geo.tv