Baitul mal: a duplication of zakat

In February of 1992, Pakistan's prime minister Mohammed Nawaz Sharif announced that a bayt al-mal would be created with initial assets at 2 billion rupees. In 1980, the country's legislature decided that zakah collection would be done on a mandatory basis by the state. A Central Zakah Council currently has the duty to handle zakah issues. This bureaucracy is organized all the way down to the local level. The role of the newly established bayt al-mal is to set up the regulations for zakah disbursement. The chief executive of the organization will have a five year term while other members will sit for three years. Much of the zakah fund historically has gone undistributed. While in the shari`a the nisab for zakah is based on gold or silver, and the values of these commodities change every year, the banks don't change their minimum limits for collecting zakah. The amount given to a zakah recipient is too small. Hopefully bayt al-mal can be a means of somewhat evening out Pakista