Jingga 13 secretary Saifuddin Shafi Muhammad told reporters that the King, as head of religion in Malaysia, has the power to remove the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for using RM63,650 in zakat for legal fees.
The allegation of zakat fund abuse was first raised by former senior policeman Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim earlier this week.
The former Kuala Lumpur criminal investigation chief accused Jamil Khir and two senior Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council (MAIWP) officials of using zakat funds to settle personal legal fees last year as recorded in the Auditor-General’s Report for 2010.
According to the report, Jamil Khir, MAIWP director Datuk Che Mat Che Ali and MAIWP chief prosecutor Shamsudin Hussain had withdrawn RM63,650 from the council’s zakat fund to settle their legal costs incurred when Anwar named the trio as respondents in his qazaf application.
The audit report also confirmed that the sum was repaid to the fund after the council obtained a RM70,000 grant in June last year as part of its general resources allocation from the government.
PKR has stepped up pressure on Jamil Khir, repeatedly calling on him to personally explain the alleged abuse and why the sum was only repaid in December, six months after MAIWP obtained the grant.
MAIWP said yesterday the sum from the alms fund had been used to cover legal expenses over trivial syarie lawsuits against the government by PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
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