NAROWAL: Around 6,000 needy people in the district are deprived of their subsistence allowance and other Zakat funds for the last two years due to the absence of district Zakat and Ushr Committee chairman and Zakat committees.

Zakat and Ushr Committee Chairman Pir Syed Azharul Hasan had resigned from his designation in January 2013 and the Local Zakat Committees also ceased to exist due to expiry of their term in November 2013.

The government did not appoint new chairman of District Zakat & Ushr Committee after resignation of Pir Syed Azharul Hassan and also the new local Zakat committees had not been constituted in the district after the expiry of the term of the previous committees so the Zakat funds of about Rs20m of subsistence allowance ofMus tehkeen-e -Zakat, scholarships for students, funds for treatment of the poor and Jahaiz Fund could not be distributed during 2013.

Same is the situation in year 2014 and no Zakat funds could be distributed in the current year and the Mustehkeen-eZakat remained deprived of even at the occasions of last Eidul Fitr and Eidul Azha.

The poor are also deprived of any support for their education, medical treatment and marriage of their daughters from the Zakat fund in the district.

Zakat & Ushr District Officer Zulfiqar Ali confirmed to Dawn that funds available in the district for 2014 could not be distributed in the absence of the district chairman Zakat & Ushr Committee and the Local Zakat committees.

The social and political circles of the district have appealed to the Punjab chief minister to talce notice of the situation and malce necessary arrangements for the distribution of Zakat funds for the needy in the district.