July 30, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1424

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LAHORE, July 29: The Punjab Zakat Council has been left with Rs320.859 million after providing over Rs4.521 billion financial assistance to 932,381 needy people under different schemes during 2002-3.

The Punjab Zakat Council utilized Rs4521.464 million of the Rs4842.323 million provided by the Central Zakat Council for providing financial assistance to deserving people during the period.

The maximum number of deserving people benefited from the guzara (subsistence) allowance. Of the Rs1209.708 million released by the Central Zakat Council, the Punjab Zakat Council distributed Rs1209.706 million among 488,661 deserving people and was left with Rs132.767 million at the end of the financial year.

Of the Rs80.647 million allocated for distribution under the old social welfare rehabilitation scheme, a sum of Rs73.703 million was distributed among 15,075 people at a flat rate of Rs5,000 per head and Rs8.944 million remained unutilized.

The maximum amount of Rs2815.631 million was provided to 162,194 people in the form of grants ranging between Rs5,000 and Rs50,000 under the permanent rehabilitation scheme for starting small scale business for supporting themselves and their families.

A sum of Rs2826.143 million was made available for the purpose and Rs311.512 remained unutilized.

As many as 126,383 deserving students were provided financial assistance totalling Rs230.246 million in the form of educational scholarships.

A sum of Rs132.633 million remained unutilized from an allocation of Rs362.913 million made available for the purpose.

Financial assistance totalling Rs84.648 million was provided to 31,616 students of religious educational institutions against Rs161.295 million made available for the purpose while Rs76.647 million remained unutilized.

Financial assistance totalling Rs88.046 million was provided to 100,400 deserving patients for purchase of medicines and meeting their treatment expenses against an allocation of Rs120.97 million.

A sum of Rs32.924 million remained unutilized.

Another sum of Rs29.524 million was provided in the form of grant for meeting the marriage expenses of 7,552 girls belonging to poor families against an allocation of Rs80.647 million. A sum of Rs51.123 million remained unutilized.

Financial assistance under the Zakat schemes is provided through 25,200 local Zakat committees which receive applications from the needy people and process their cases.

The Punjab Zakat Council releases the funds on the recommendations of the zakat committees in the form of cheques. The committees distribute the cheques to the people concerned.