PESHAWAR, Sept 11: Requests of people who seek financial help from the Pakistan Baitual Mal (PBM) usually fall on deaf ears as they fall prey to a long, tiresome procedure that fetches them nothing in the end.

“Those who need financial help often abandon all hopes of getting financial help either from the Pakistan Baitul Mal or the provincial Zakat and Ushr department as both departments adopt procedures which do not allow the poor people even to think of getting any charity from the government,” said a widow from Karak, whose application to the  prime minister’s secretariat for financial assistance was sent to the PBM and got lost somewhere in the process.

The widow, who requested anonymity, said she had to send her in-laws from Karak to the PBM office in Peshawar every month, but they failed to trace the lost application. Her in-laws were told that hoping for financial help was a futile exercise as the PBM was facing severe financial constraints. She had to abandon the process and cursed herself for the expenses incurred on the visits to the PBM Peshawar office.

Deputy Director Pakistan Baitul Mal, NWFP Syed Abul Qasim Gillani said the directorate was allocated Rs6.6 million for all 24 districts of the province, which were not sufficient.

“We get funds on a quarterly basis, while we receive between 350 and 400 applications on a daily basis from the PM’s secretariat,” he said.

In the first quarter of the current financial year, the PBM NWFP directorate received about Rs1.6 million, while the approved cases for financial assistance were worth more than Rs2.4 million.

“Naturally, we cannot entertain all applicants for the obvious shortage of funds,” Mr Gillani said.

Apart from the load of applications received from the PM’s secretariat, the needy also submit applications to the NWFP directorate for financial help on medical grounds.  

Mr Gillani expressed his helplessness to entertain the poor and the needy due to the shortage of funds, saying that he faced procedural bottlenecks in processing the application of a widow of a PBM’s official, who was injured in a road accident.