It would be worthwhile to clarify the misinformation in respect of Zakat Foundation of India attempted by 2-3 individuals.
Presentation before Sri Narendra Modi
Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood, the founder president of Zakat Foundation of India had made a 30 minute PowerPoint presentation before Sri Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad on June 29, 2013 at a day-long event titled Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat which was inaugurated by the former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. Since then Dr Mahmood’s presentation is in the
public domain; it was also uploaded by rediff.com at its site. After his presentation, Dr Mahmood received a standing ovation from the audience. The hon’ble Sri Modi gracefully acknowledged from the podium that it’s imperative to listen to and ponder over such views. The points covered in the presentation were later followed up by Dr Zafar through his emails addressed to the prime minister.
At least two recommendations so made by Dr Zafar were implemented for which we are grateful to our illustrious prime minister.
Presentation before Sri Nitin Gadkari
Dr Zafar Mahmood made another 34-minute PowerPoint presentation on Feb, 03, 2019 at Nagpur before the learned union minister Sri Nitin Gadkari at an event titled ‘Muslim Issues with Government’ hosted by ‘Vidarbh Muslim Intellectual Forum’. Sri Gadkari then felicitously told the audience in Nagpur that he would convey the views expressed in the PPT to the Government of India and to the party.
Both of these presentations are available at the ZFI website.
Ayodhya issue rapprochement
During the pendency of the Ayodhya case the hon’ble Supreme Court had referred the matter to a mediation committee appointed by the court itself. One of its members was his grace Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. An official of his ‘Art of Living’ organization had visited Dr Zafar in his office to discuss the matter. Dr Zafar had told him that as a goodwill gesture Muslims should give over the Ayodhya land to Hindus and, by way of benevolent reciprocity, the long standing demands of Indian Muslims could be considered by the Government; this was followed up by email.
Many of these demands reflected the recommendations of Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee whose report was approved by the Union Cabinet and was tabled in the Parliament on Nov 30, 2006. These demands, as reiterated by Dr Zafar were covered in the media as ‘Ayodhya issue rapprochement’. Some of these had earlier formed part of Dr Zafar’s twin presentations made at Ahmedabad and Nagpur.
ZFI’s multiple works
ZFI is a charitable trust registered in India since 2001. It runs orphanages, medical centers, day care centers, facilities for widows, poor girls’ marriage, feeding the hungry, disaster management etc. In 2007, after the acceptance of Justice
Sachar Committee Report by the Government of India and the Parliament, ZFI decided to further compliment the state’s efforts (cf. Article 15/16 of the Constitution) and thus established a new unit known as Sir Syed Coaching & Guidance Centre for Civil Services. ZFI also works closely with Interfaith Coalition for Peace with a view to promote interfaith harmony.
Statutory obligations fulfilled
ZFI has all the mandatory governmental recognitions, it’s accounts and progress of its projects are meticulously recorded, audited and submitted in time to the Government departments where these are regularly scrutinized and have always been found to be in order.
ZFI (International)
ZFI International (ZFII) is a different, much smaller, charitable company registered under British laws. There are two British directors of Indian origin who are well placed and live in UK. One of them Dr Jafer Quraishi 75, Psychiatrist belongs to Hyderabad and lives in Birmingham. Between 2012 and 2016 he was individually associated with a couple of British companies of Zakir Naik but resigned from there after he came to know that the Govt of India had censured the man. The other British director of ZFII is another Indian Sri Shadab Ahmad who was inducted in 2017 after the unfortunate death of Smt Laxmi Sharma.
Madina Trust
Madina Trust is a minuscule donor charity registered in Britain. It’s chair is 88 year old retired gentleman Sri Zia ul Hasan who belongs to Ambala and had shifted to UK before independence where he worked as Accountant. His wife belongs to Saharanpur. They keep helping the poor and needy in India and have said that his charity never participated in any political activity nor has intention ever to do so. There is another charity with similar name about whose activities he is not aware.
Organized collection of individual charity and its institutionalized utilization in India
Needless to mention, over the years, about ninety percent of ZFI’s donations have been received from within India, less than ten percent of gross receipts are under FCRA (obviously contributing the forex element to the government coffers) which is basically a facilitatory mechanism for NRIs. More than ninety-nine percent of all the ZFI receipts are through banking channels. Names of the ZFI Trustees & office bearers are available at its website zakatindia.org.
Irfan Baig, Secrerary, ZFI Sept 01, 2020 info@zakatindia.org