Zakat on Non-Agricultural Land Plots: Public Awareness and Fiscal Reforms

Zakat is although a compulsory obligation in Islam but is not paid compulsorily by the people. There are two main reasons; one is the ignorance about many things on which zakat is due, for example non-agricultural land and commercial plots etc. andsecond, ignorance about the mechanism through which it is paid. Thefirst aspect is related to public awareness and second aspect is related to the fiscal policy being enforced by the government collecting property and wealth taxes thus putting heavyfinancial pressure on the owners of real estate so as to compel them to avoid zakat andpay taxes. The paper explores the level of awareness among the general public about the payment ofzakat on non-agricultural land. Itfurther addresses the question that how the existing revenue structure need to be changed. For thefirst aspect, primary data with n=33 has been collected from the capital city of the province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. For the second aspect the revenue structure of the government is reviewed tofind out the number of taxes on the possession, sale and purchase of commercial or nonagricultural land plots. Since taxes are in no way a substitute of zakat so it is further explored that if the existing taxes are replaced and zakat system would be properly enforced then how much is the net return. In order to estimate this net return, an interview has been conducted from the property dealers and also the figures are taken from government accounts to calculate a sample for the study area that is then generalized for the government returns at large. The results of the study show a high level ofignorance about zakat obligation on plots in the study area. The verdicts of the Islamic scholars also create difference of opinion, however, majority have approved the case in favor of payment. Since there is ignorance and people have to pay taxes so they avoid zakat and just pay taxes. A mechanism is needed for fiscal reforms to ensure the payment of zakat and to stop its substitution against taxes on land plots.

The Civil Society-Democracy Co-Relationship: A Comparative Analysis of Turkey and Pakistan.

The Civil Society (C.S) in Pakistan though has developed over the years and gained vibrancy and strength to some extent. But it could not achieve much success as compared to its counterpart in Turkey. This research study involved primary as well as secondary sources as a part of this exploration.The methodology used in this study is a mixture of Quantitative and Qualitative Methods and mostly used traditional historical approach. Sampling involved people from different sections of C.S comprising of lawyers, teachers, parliamentarians and students regarding relationship and impact of civil society on democratization in Pakistan and Turkey. This is a pioneer study to use the Liberal Democratic Model as the frame work for addressing the subject. Liberal Democracy is practiced in most of the countries of the world. Its‟ important elements are: representative democracy, electoral choice and competition. There is a clear division between the C.S and the state. One to one interviews have been conducted from different people belonging to different areas in Pakistan. After analysis of the data the themes were presented to the participants for them to verify or refute. According to the researcher incompetent and corrupt leadership along with lack of influential middle class are responsible for a weak and fragmented civil society.In case of Turkey the civil society was also fragmented and weak but there has been a shift from ideologically centred activity towards issue oriented activity and assistance from external actors. By examining different reasons why civil society in Pakistan has not been able to achieve the level of democratization and success as compared to that achieved in Turkey, viable solutions and suggestions to improve the situation have been proposed.