Zakat beneficiaries will not receive cash for Eid

Provincial govt fails to reinstate zakat committee chairmen despite court orders

RAWALPINDI:

For the first time in the last 40 years, millions of zakat beneficiaries including those living below the poverty line, will not be given an ‘Eid gift’ package of Rs12,000 due to the severe economic crisis in the country.

According to sources, the system of free treatment of patients through Zakat, Bait-ul-Mal, and Health Card has been halted in the Rawalpindi district.

They said no financial assistance has been given to any of the recipients of zakat for nine months, starting from the beginning of the new financial year.

Zakat-receiving families, widows and orphans have been waiting for financial assistance for nine months and now they have been instructed to patiently wait until the formation of the new government or till the end of the financial crisis, the sources added.

The sources further said the caretaker government had dismissed the chairmen of the district zakat committees a month ago but the high court has reinstated all of them. However, the caretaker government has not yet reinstated them.

They added that some 1,166 local zakat committees of district Rawalpindi have been dissolved after the completion of their terms, but due to the absence of the district body, local zakat committees could not be elected.

They said only civil servants are left in the zakat committees as the chairmen, vice-chairmen and members have been suspended.

Moreover, sources said the holy month of Ramazan will commence in just three weeks but no funds and elected chairmen are available.

According to zakat council sources, if the zakat fund is not released within 30 days, ten thousand beneficiaries of the entire district will be deprived of the much-needed eid package.

“The dowry fund for the marriage of orphan girls, scholarship for needy students, and free treatment of poor patients have been suspended,” they said.

Earlier, 15,000 to 20,000 patients were given free treatment, free dialysis, and eye surgery in the Rawalpindi district through Health Card, Zakat Fund, and Baitul Mal Fund.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2023.