Zakat funds delay: Over 3,000 patients deprived of medical help

Usher and Zakat Committee chairman at odds with Pims’ Social Welfare Department.

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) has not received Zakat funds since July, leaving over 3,000 deserving patients unable to get registered to receive free medication and surgical equipment from the hospital.

A Pims official requesting anonymity said that as a result of the funding delay, the hospital has not registered any new patients for the past two-and-a-half months.

The official said the Ministry of Religious Affairs had already released the funds to the Usher and Zakat Committee, but the committee chairman needs to countersign on them. A similar delay occurred in December 2012, which the official put down to differences between the chairman and the Pims Social Welfare Department.

“Over 3,000 needy patients from across the country have been deprived of their right to free medication and surgical equipment,” said the official.

Mazhar Ali, an attendant with a patient admitted in the hospital, said the issue has forced him to buy expensive medication that from drug stores.

“How can someone who earns hardly Rs12,000 per month afford to buy Rs2,000 to Rs3,000 worth of medicine every week?” he told The Express Tribune.

Hussain, another attendant who had travelled from Chakwal to get heart medication for his father, had similar grievances.

When contacted, Pims Social Welfare Officer Tariq Mehmood said, “The Usher and Zakat Committee district officer has ensured us the funds will be released soon and has asked us to start registering patients, which we will be doing from today.”

Meanwhile, Usher and Zakat Committee Chairman Azhar Butt said the Pims Social Welfare Department did not invite them to the tender-opening ceremony.

“We do not know which pharmaceutical company has been given the tender. We want to ensure transparency, so without access to basic information, we cannot release the funds,” he said.

He added that Rs10 million was released in two instalments every year for the procurement of medicine and equipment.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2013.