Zakat beneficiaries’ long wait finally ends

Families start receiving charity after 14-month hiatus

RAWALPINDI:

After a lapse of 14 months, the Zakat and Ushr Department of Rawalpindi has transferred pending amounts to more than 8,000 beneficiary families eligible to receive the charity.

The department said it released financial assistance to the tune of Rs167.9 million which would be distributed to eligible families, including those with breadwinners having special needs and suffering from leprosy.

The families, who live below the poverty line, had not received the monthly allowance of Rs1,500 for the last 14 months.

The families of widows and orphans were given Rs18,000 as a lumpsum amount for the entire year. It amounted to Rs156.7 million.

Meanwhile, around Rs9.974 million in financial assistance was transferred to the families of headed by visually-impaired individuals and women.

Another Rs1.2 million was distributed in families whose household head suffered from leprosy.

The transfer comes after a period during which the beneficiaries didn’t receive any payments for 14 months. They were denied the provision of gifts on significant occasions at last year’s Eidul Fitr, Eidul Azha, as well as Eid this year.

Earlier, the caretaker government had dissolved the 1,166 local Zakat committees in Rawalpindi district, subsequently appointing grade-16 officers as administrators to assume the responsibility. These administrators were entrusted with the task of promptly updating and submitting a comprehensive list of all beneficiaries throughout the district.

Based on these compiled lists, financial assistance was disbursed to deserving families.

The district administrators added that the amount had been transferred to the beneficiaries through a private contractor on the mobile number provided by them.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2023.