LAHORE, Jan 12: Inordinate delay in the election of more than 25,000 local zakat committees on account of tug-of-war between the ruling party groups has paralyzed the distribution system in the Punjab.

The zakat committees' elections are being delayed because of lack of consensus on the names of members (of the bodies) among the legislators, the district government office-bearers and the ruling party leaders.

All of them want to accommodate a maximum number of their nominees on the committees because of their authority to sanction financial relief. The dispute over nominations seems never-ending because the provincial government and the party leadership are not interfering in the process.

These local committees form the foundation of the whole system because no financial assistance can be provided without determining istehqaq (eligibility) by these bodies.

The district committees only forward the recommendations of the local bodies to the Provincial Zakat Council for the sanction of financial assistance. Neither the district committees nor the zakat administration and the provincial governments are authorized to sanction funds without the recommendations of the local committees.

The polling was to be completed by the district officials by June 30 last year following the expiry of the three-year tenure of the previous committees. However, their tenure was extended till Dec 30 because the election could not take place as the new district committees could not be constituted. This was because of delay in nomination of the members.

The outgoing local zakat committees were allowed to clear the cases of 'Guzara Allowance,' medical assistance and educational stipends during the extended tenure, but no decisions could be taken on permanent rehabilitation scheme cases.

In fact, no relief could be provided under the scheme for the whole of the year because half-yearly funds for January-June 2003 period were not released by the Central Zakat Council in time and the committees were not there to sanction the distribution when the funds were released after June last year. More than 100,000 people are provided with financial help for starting small-scale businesses under the scheme to earn a living for themselves.