BAHAWALPUR, Sept 20: More than 15,000 poor people across the district will not get financial assistance from zakat fund this Eid-ul-Fitr because of absence of new zakat committees.

Dawn has learnt that there were about 750 zakat committees in six tehsils of the district. Each zakat committee had 10 to 15 needy people on its permanent roll for financial assistance besides hundreds of others who were being extended financial assistance without being put on permanent rolls.

As most chairmen of these dissolved zakat committees were either affiliated with the former ruling coalition or had leaning toward it, the incumbent Punjab government made them dysfunctional and made thousands of people suffer.

The provincial government, which was at odds with its political ally PPP, has failed to hold fresh election for new chairmen of these committees and there is no hope that the poor will get zakat money in the near future, especially on Eid.—Correspondent