THATTA, Jan 10: A large number of people, claming to be deserving Zakat, took out a procession and staged a sit-in in Mirpur Bathoro on Monday to protest against alleged abuse of authority by the District Zakat and Ushr Committee chairman.

Led by Haji Latif Khatti and others, the protesters with several chairmen of local Zakat committees marched from Ali Bunder to the bus stand and blocked the Sujawal-Hyderabad road, resulting in suspension of vehicular traffic for about two hours.

Speaking on the occasion, their leaders alleged that the district Zakat chairman, Dr Liaquat Umrani, asked the deserving people to regularly come to the Raj Malik and Begna Mori villages of Pakistan Muslim League leaders Ghulam Qadir Malkani and Haji Usman Malkani to collect Zakat.

By doing so, they alleged, the chairman, who was a close associate of the PML leaders, wanted to make the Malkanis popular among the poor people. They said that travelling to the remote coastal village to avail their right was very difficult for the poor people and threatened to lay a siege to the district Zakat office if they were not paid Zakat within a fortnight.