Qureshi Rishta

Zakat, ushr, and the one place a sect answer produces paperwork

Sect is the first thing families on this page settle, and almost everything it decides is a matter of practice and conscience. One thing it decides is a bank deduction, under a statute that has been in force since 1980.

What is deducted, and when

Under the Zakat and Ushr Ordinance, zakat is charged compulsorily at two and a half per cent on certain assets held by a person at or above the nisab: savings and similar accounts, notice and fixed deposits, savings certificates, investment trust units, government securities, listed and unlisted shares, annuities, life policies and provident fund payments. Assets held in foreign currency are outside it. The zakat year runs from the first of Ramadan to the end of Shaban and the valuation date is its first day. The nisab is set at 612.32 grams of silver, or the equivalent in cash, gold or trade goods, and the figure is notified each year; for someone whose zakatable assets are gold alone it is 87.48 grams of gold.

The declaration, which is where fiqh comes in

A Muslim who holds that the fiqh he follows does not oblige him to pay zakat to the state in this manner may file a declaration, and the deduction stops. It has to be on the prescribed form, sworn before a magistrate, oath commissioner, notary public or other authorised person in the presence of two witnesses who identify him, naming the recognised fiqh he follows, and filed with the bank at least thirty days before the valuation date. For ushr it goes to the local committee instead and may be filed any time before that date. It remains valid while the asset stays where it is and his position is unchanged, amounts already deducted can be refunded on a claim, and the Federal Shariat Court may be asked to decide whether a declaration holds good under the fiqh named in it.

Ushr, which a landowning household meets every harvest

Five per cent of the liable person’s share of the produce, assessed as at the valuation date, payable by owners, grantees, allottees, lessees and anyone in possession who has raised the crop. Produce below five wasqs of wheat, about 948 kilograms, or its value in other crops, is exempt, as is a plot of up to a quarter of an acre. It is the first charge on the produce and is collected in cash, though a provincial council may take wheat or paddy in kind. The revenue department assesses it and a tehsildar apportions it between a lessor and a lessee. An appeal lies to the revenue officer within thirty days, but only after half the assessed amount has been deposited, and arrears are recovered in the same way as land revenue.

Who decides where it goes

A local zakat and ushr committee for each revenue estate or village and each urban ward: nine members including two Muslim women of forty-five or over, most of them chosen by local residents at a gathering, with a chairman elected from among them and terms of three years, no more than two consecutively. Members must hold at least a secondary school certificate, be known for piety and financial integrity, and take no part in politics. The committee decides who is eligible and pays out by crossed cheque, to the needy and the poor, to orphans, widows and persons with disabilities. Every tier of the fund is audited by the Auditor-General.

Why this sits on this page

Two reasons. It is the one point where a sect answer produces a document rather than a disposition, so asking whether a household has filed a declaration tells you something factual about how it runs its money rather than impressionistic. And a landowning household that is explicit about religious practice will meet both of these in the couple’s first year, so it is better settled between the families beforehand than at a bank counter in Ramadan. The figures move, the nisab by design every year, so confirm the current one rather than relying on a number somebody remembers.