Pakistanis pay more than $ 1.7 billion ($ 2.19 billion) in Zakat annually, with the vast majority of recipients being women, according to a study published this week by researchers from the British -based International Center for Tax and Development (ICTD) and Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Zakat is a form of mandatory almsgiving in Islam and one of its five central columns. It requires Muslims who meet a particular fortune threshold to donate a fixed part, usually 2.5 percent of their savings and assets annually, to those in need.

The results of the study are based on a 2024 study of 7,500 Sunni Muslim Pakistanis who shed new light on the scale and the social role of Zakat, according to a post shared on the ICTD site.

“In a recently published fact sheet, we estimate that self -identified Sunnis in Pakistan will pay over RS619 billion (GBP 1.7 billion) in Zakat annually,” the study writers wrote. “By 2024, the average Zakat paid around RS15,000 (about GBP 43) with over 50 million Pakistanis contributing.”

“Our data suggests that more money every year is distributed to people in need in Pakistan through Zakat than through the largest state -headed cash transfer program, Benazir Income Support Program,” they added.

Pakistan’s Benazir Income Support Program (Bisp) has a budget of 2024/2025 of RS598.7 billion ($ 2.16 billion), while Zakat contributions, largely unregulated and directly paid out by individuals, exceeds this amount.

The federal excise duty and even official development aid received by Pakistan in recent years lacks annual Zakat Totales, according to the study.

The research also reveals that Pakistan’s official Zakat Fund, created in the 1980s for mandatory collection and paid through the state-appointed council, plays a negligible role.

“Most Pakistanis prefer to bypass the State Fund and are not surprising in a context where individuals have low confidence in the government,” the authors said. “The National State Fund collects only one fifty of what we estimate that they must contribute annually, while the respondents overwhelmingly noted that they prefer to control their own zakat -give. In our study we find that less than 2 percent of Zakat Giver reviews the State Fund.”

The study said that most zakat is given directly to individuals or via mosques, schools and to a lesser extent NGOs that bypass formal state channels.

More than half of the respondents reported to give Zakat solely to female recipients with a special preference for widows who were perceived as particularly economically vulnerable.

The study emphasizes that private religious giving is to fill critical welfare holes in Pakistan, especially for marginalized groups, in the absence of robust state social protection systems.