Staff Reporter
Peshawar
Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan has decided in principle to assign the task of free medical treatment of deserving people through zakat fund to the Health Department. He was chairing a meeting of Zakat, Ushar and Social Welfare Department here at CM Secretariat the other day, said an official handout issued here on Thursday.
Provincial Minister Anwar Zaib, Secretary Social Welfare Manzoor Ahmad and other concerned authorities attended the meeting. The CM decided that funds being provided to Zakat Department for the purpose would be absorbed into Dowry Fund setup for the financial assistance of deserving unmarried girls for their marriage expenses and directed the concerned departments to come up with a final plan for the purpose. He also directed the Zakat Department to enhance the financial assistance being provided under Dowry Funds from Rs. 30,000 to at least one 1,00,000 rupees further directing the health department to establish separate fund for the medication of deserving people or to cover the free treatment of such people under Sehat Card Scheme.
The chief minister has directed the high ups of the department for necessary measures to devise a transparent mechanism based on Information Technology on the pattern of Ehsas Program for identification of deserving people for Zakat Funds as well as for the distribution of Zakat Funds amongst the deserving people so that human intervention and political interference could be minimized to the possible level and 100 percent transparency in the entire process could be ensured. The meeting was given a detailed presentation on various reforms initiatives being introduced to streamline the affairs of the department and told that implementation of Zakat Management Information System (ZMIS) has been started with the aim to ensure services delivery in efficient and transparent manners.
Under the initiatives a database would be established for all the orphans, special person, widows and homeless people. It was further informed that Zakat Hospital Management Information System (ZHMIS) has also been prepared for the proper record of health related facilities and would be implemented very soon. The meeting was apprised that under the Zakat Orphan Management Information System (ZOMIS), data of around 35000 orphans have been collected so far and will soon be presented for the approval of Zakat and Ushr Council.
