THE ISLAMIC CONCEPT OF POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND DESIRE OF PAKISTAN’S FOLLOW UP:

We need to understand the epistemological significance of poverty as defined and understood in Islam. Faqir (poorest of the poor) and Miskeen (whose legitimate needs exceed his means) are the two basic classifications of poor in Islam. Contrary to the interest based cosmetic approach, the Islamic way of poverty alleviation focuses on developing human resource and providing relevant job opportunity. The institutions identified for financial assistance to the poor are assistance by: the nearest kith and kin; the neighbors under neighborhood rights; others in the form of mandatory charity like Zakat; and through temporary and permanent endowments. Moreover, an Islamic State is bound to provide sustenance to its citizens irrespective of their religion. The State meets this responsibility by collection of Zakat, other emergent charities and raising taxes.

The enormity of such relief to the poor under Islam cannot be disputed. Instead of taking religion out of our public life, if we focus on integrating Islamic principles in our daily life, the social response to poverty, irrespective of the involvement of the State, would be far more supportive than all the donated funds together. Zakat and Bait-ul-Mal are the two institutions, which, if used properly, can address the problem of poverty to a great extent. The institution of Bait-ul-Mal has tremendous potential for reaching the poor and helping them to escape the poverty trap without engaging in the curse of micro-credit. An assessment of both Zakat and Bait-ul-Mal in terms of their mis-utilization and rehabilitative contribution is urgently required.

The importance of Islamic arrangements for poverty alleviation lies in the fact that the poor cannot afford loans at 20-25% interest rate, which either make them defaulters or the staff of concerned organizations get involved in corruption by showing funds reserved for other purposes as recovery of the micro-credit. More than 70 per cent rural population depend mainly on agriculture. The land tenure system is a colonial legacy. India addressed this problem in the initial few years, but the impact of land reforms in Pakistan, introduced on three occasions, has been less than structural. Instead of addicting more and more poor to micro-credit with no significant change in their poverty status, it is better for an authoritative regime, like Musharraf's, to introduce revolutionary land reforms and address the poverty problem on long-term basis.

Instead of purely relying on interest-based loans, programs like Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund and Khushhali Bank need to look into the Islamic ways, like Mudariba, Musharika, Khumus, etc for supporting the needy. The work opportunities through mega projects as described by the General in every speech are not going to address the suffering of millions living in remote regions, where cottage or rural industries need to be promoted on priority basis.

Pakistan introduced Zakat and Ushr ordinance in 1980. The collection of Ushr, a percentage of land produce, has not been very satisfactory because it is being done through the Land Revenue Administration which, as a legacy of the colonial days, is not tuned to such a revolutionary concept of an Islamic welfare State. However, if the legislation is enforced in letter and spirit, poverty will find no spawning grounds and the poor and the needy will be integrated with the rest of the society. There is also a need to introduce a representative system for the collection and utilization of Zakat. The new decentralized local government system can play a vital role in local collection and disbursement to the local poor. This would build social cohesion as well.

The ongoing poverty alleviation measures show that despite the fact that markets do not eliminate poverty, because they tend to move new wealth away from poor communities, most NGOs and the government follow the capitalist market doctrines. They secure dividends by concentrating investments in relatively favorable environments. The poorest people in the poorest places have thus disappeared in practice - if not in ideology and publicity - from NGO net-works and government programs, almost as surely as they vanished from private marketing surveys and business plans. Without coming back to Islam for finding solutions to our problems, we may never achieve the lofty goals that we set for ourselves - whether they are in the field of poverty alleviation or any other aspect of our collective and individual lives. The problem is that we are not ready to even give it a thought because the pockets in which we have put our hands for survival are leading us in exactly the opposite direction.