RAWALPINDI, June 20: The Central Zakat Council has decided to retrieve the unutilized grant given to hospitals for the treatment of poor patients, as it would lapse by the end of the this fiscal, sources told Dawn here on Thursday.

The council, through a notification, has informed the hospital administrations that the funds, which would remain unutilized till June 30, would not be available for use during the next fiscal year and would have to be returned to the council.

The sources said the decision had been taken for the first time. They said the Zakat funds were released lately and most of the hospitals had yet to get the last two quarterly instalments.

“It’s almost 10 days to go before the fiscal year ends and we have got only two instalments so far,” a hospital source said.

According to the notification, the members of Zakat Council would visit the hospitals to monitor the funds’ utilization.

The council has constituted three-member committees for the different provinces comprising members from that particular province, who would conduct periodical inspection of national health institutions and do on-the-spot scrutiny of the funds’ utilization.