KARACHI, Nov 26: The government has failed to disburse the Zakat money to deserving people for at least one year as Baitul Maal officials have been turning them back on due dates for payment for one reason or the other.

At some of the Baitul Maal offices visited recently, it was observed that the handicapped and elderly people, including women, were among the destitute waiting for their turn in long queues to get their documents attested by the Baitul Maal officials.

The cards they were holding in their hands showed that they had been paid no payment for about a year.

Some of the dejected people in the queue told this scribe that the Baitul Maal staff was making them to undergo this torturous ordeal repeatedly for long as on every visit, they had to queue up here for hours only to be told to come some other day.

Some of the women among them revealed that they had been paid not a single penny during the last three years. They moaned that they had been visiting post offices every week in the hope of getting the promised financial assistance but in vain.

They quoted Baitul Maal officials as telling them that the release of funds had been stopped by the government as the money had been diverted to the victims of natural calamities, like earthquake.

When asked about the amount they would normally receive from the Baitul Maal, they put the figure at Rs1,200 for a period of six months, and stated that half they money would go waste in frequenting the offices.

The District In-charge of Baitul Maal at Sakhi Hassan office, Zakaullah Khan, told this scribe that the payments would hopefully be cleared shortly. However, he added, it would now be disbursed through banks, instead of post offices.