HYDERABAD, Dec 15: The non-issuance of lists of Zakat recipients to banks by the district Zakat officer, Gul Hassan Leghari, has put the recipients in a difficult situation.

The Sindh minister for Auqaf, Zakat/Ushr and religious/minority affairs had distributed cheques of more than Rs7.2 million among deserving people a few days ago at a school.

The recipients were given cross cheques amoun-ting to Rs50,000 to Rs15,00 to avoid complaints of drawing the amount by the local Zakat committee chairmen in the names of their selected people.

The recipients are required to first open their bank accounts in any branch of the bank but they are mostly illiterate and do not know the procedure how to open a bank account and get the cheque cashed..

Ever since the cheques were given, the recipients, especially those from the City taluka, have not been able to get the cheque cashed as the letters to be sent to the banks have not been issued by the district Zakat officer, Hyderabad.

The banks normally do not allow the payment unless they are provided lists, containing name of each beneficiary and the amount allocated in his/her name.

It was learnt that the sending of the lists to the banks was delayed because the dist-rict Zakat officer simultaneously wanted to compile the lists of all the eight talukas of the district.