Islamic safety nets for the poor: Pakistan's experience

Developing countries have been facing a number of challenges including poverty. Pakistan is one of the developing countries that is home to a large number of poor, constituting about one-third of its population. The state has been introducing different poverty reduction programs from time to time during the last six decades. These include integrated rural development to transfer payments such as zakat and ushr, bait-ul-mall, interest-free loans (Qarz al Hasan), and Benazir Income support programs. Despite the introduction of different safety nets programs, poverty still persists. This chapter overviews the incidence of poverty and social safety nets including Islamic social finance programs of the country, and discusses why these programs did not bring results as expected.