Donations collected at shrines being spent lawfully, PA assured

The Sindh government’s Auqaf department ensures that cash donations collected at the shrines under its administrative control are appropriately and lawfully spent.

The assurance to this effect was given to the concerned lawmakers in the Sindh Assembly during the question hour of the session on Friday.

Responding to written and oral questions asked by legislators, Sind Zakat and Ushr Minister Riaz Shah Sheerazi told the House that all the cash donations received at the shrines controlled by the provincial Auqaf Department were deposited into an account of the Sindh government.

He said that shops at the shrines managed by the Auqaf department are auctioned for a three-year period, and a committee constituted by the department supervises this work.

Female lawmaker of the Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Bilquees Mukhtar suggested that the donations collected at the shrines be spent on accommodation facilities for the staffers of the department.

The provincial minister assured the House that these charitable donations were spent appropriately to fulfil the requirements at the shrines.

He said that shrines attracting a large number of visitors had been under electronic surveillance through closed-circuit television cameras after sabotage incidents at such sacred sites in the past.

Answering another query, the Zakat and Ushr minister said no incident had so far been reported to him about criminals kidnapping children at the shrines.

Another MQM-P MPA Fauzia Hameed complained of the presence of drug addicts at shrines and unsatisfactory sanitation conditions there. Sheerazi, however, claimed that the custodians of the shrines took proper care of the housekeeping and sanitation affairs of those sites.

He also maintained that there were ample security arrangements at the shrines managed by the provincial government. He informed the House that security searchers had also been deputed at such shrines.

He added that there were also privately managed shrines in the province.

MQM-P legislator Sharif Jamal demanded action against pickpockets and drug traffickers operating at the shrines.