It is in the month of Ramzan that most Muslims busy themselves in calculating zakaat, a prominent manifestation of charity in Islam. Usually given to those in abject poverty, over the past few years, zakaat funds, calculated at 2.5% of an individual’s annual savings, are being used to free inmates of jails who have served their prison sentences but have no support systems to pay fines associated with their convictions.
Moin Pasha, an octogenarian, says, “It was two years ago that I got to know of an organisation that uses zakaat money to pay those who cannot afford bail. Some of these prisoners are sole breadwinners and everything depends on them,” she says, adding that the consequences of imprisonment for the person’s wife and children are often disastrous.
The Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ), a non-profit, is one such organisation that has been gathering zakaat from donors and channelling these funds to secure prisoner release. “Since last year we have paid 130 fines that are associated with prison sentences. Additionally, we have paid bail money for 35 prisoners and have got them all released,” Ahmed Hameeduddin Shakeel, finance secretary, MPJ, says.
