July 1, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 30, 1424

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THATTA, June 30: Gross irregularities have been reported in disbursement of Rs29.1 million Zakat funds meant for the deserving people of Thatta district.

Personal queries, interviews of political leaders, social workers, the needy people and officials revealed that the amount had been disbursed among 2,600 claimants of the entire nine Talukas of the district.

However, ex-MNA Babu Ghulam Hussain, sitting MPAs of PPP Sassui Palejo, Humaira Alwani, PPP leader Syed Masood Mustafa, social worker Dada Qadir Rahto, and NGO operators Yar Mohammad Jalalani and Mehboob Brohi, a number of deserving people and officials, who requested not to be named, claimed that this time the authorities had broken all previous records regarding favouritism and nepotism.

Brushing aside the official procedure of the recommendation and referring the individual Zakat case to the Deh chairman, lists of “favourites” were directly floated by the powers that be throughout the district.

Former MNA Babu Ghulam Hussain claimed that even the DCO, Thatta, Usman Panhwar, an officer of BS-20, who has been made the administrator of the district Zakat and Ushr Committee in addition to the post of DCO in the absence of the district chairman, Zakat Committee, also did not care to ascertain facts regarding the irregularities despite it being brought to his knowledge time and again.

He claimed that the DCO himself accommodated 13 deserving people on his own discretion.

Otherwise, only non-genuine cases, who were close associates, political workers and favourites, were paid Zakat, and they did not deserve it at all.

The leaders said the poor were running from pillar to post to get Zakat but in vain.

Meanwhile, several handicapped and deserving people held a protest demonstration in front of the DCO office, Makli, to protest against the discrimination in disbursement of Zakat funds on Friday.

Social commentators said that those who received the cheques could ultimately get less than half the amount mentioned on the cheques because the officials and Zakat chairmen concerned fleeced them before the cheques got encashed.