Role of Infaq in poverty alleviation in Pakistan

Abstract

The system of Infaq (spending in the path of Allah) exists in the country in one form or the other. However, so far little is known about its effectiveness as a tool for alleviating poverty. Presently no Islamic state seems to follow all the dictates of the Infaq system to the letter. There is, however, no doubt that the people of all the Muslim countries including Pakistan do observe certain Islamic traditions. The giving of alms and gifts to help the needy on a voluntary basis is still widely practised. This study using HIES data for 1987-88 finds that Infaq does help in poverty alleviation. Its impact particularly on the poverty gap and severity of poverty index is significant. If Zakat and Ushr are fully collected according to the letter and distributed to the deserving, we can expect to root out poverty from Pakistan. There is a comment by S.R. Khan on pp 950-952. -from Authors