HYDERABAD, March 6: Issues relating to zakat distribution and soaring prices of sugar echoed in the district council on Monday. Members expressed doubts about integrity of zakat committees’ members and distribution of zakat money among genuine deserving people.

The convenor referred the resolution relating to zakat committee to the insaaf committee of the council for giving its recommendations.

Through identical resolutions Arshad Naeem and Q. Hakim questioned the formation of zakat committees and unfair distribution of money by committees’ members.

They said that a major amount was embezzled while deserving people were deprived of their right.

They proposed that such committees should consist of members having religious education and commitment to consider it as a religious obligation.

Hussain Bux Hussaini, Mohammad Ali Gohar, Rauf Jafri, Yamin Soomro and Mehboob Abro said that UC nazims became questionable among people as far as zakat was concerned because they had failed to help deserving people to get this money.

Munawar Zai and Ashraf Khan alleged that zakat committees representatives preferred their relatives which was highly condemnable and proposed that committees should be given under control of UC nazims.

Convenor Zafar Ali Rajput observed that the matter involved jurisdiction of provincial government therefore legal status of the resolution should be decided by the insaf committee.

The council adopted resolution of Mohammad Ehsan regarding soaring prices of sugar, calling for effective measures to control prices and action against hoarders.

The mover pointed out that sugar was being sold in the city between Rs37 to Rs42 while at utility stores it was available at Rs27.50 per kilo gram.

He referred to statements of government functionaries regarding hoarding of sugars by few mills owners and added that practical measures were required to address the situation.

He said that hoarding should be brought to an end and malpractices taking place at utility stores should also be checked.

Hussain Bux Hussaini, Q. Hakim and Abbas Khan called for ensuring sale of sugar on reasonable prices in open market and controlling of prices of sugar.

They said that the NAB was also investigating the matter but preventive measures should be adopted after taking hoarders to task.

They said that sugar should be made available at reduced prices adding that inquiries should be made why directives of Sindh chief minister regarding making sugar stock public were not complied with.

Members including Ashraf Khan, Munawar Zai, Sajida Baloch, Javed Qureshi, Yamin Soomro, Mehboob Abro and Ghulam Rasool Samoo also discussed the sugar crisis in detail.

They said that mobile service regarding sugar’s sale should be ensured at the UC level because people were losing buying capacity.

They said some concrete suggestions should be proposed by house so that they could be considered by the government.

“The situation is so alarming that even youths are caught stealing sugar in our area”, claimed one of the members, Sajida Baloch.

EDOs: Most of executive district officers of different groups of offices did not turn up in the house which led to criticism by the house in the session.

Yamin Soomro pointed out that despite directives by the district nazim, the EDOs were not attending the council session.

The chair asked councillor officer to write a letter to the DPO and the DCO that all EDOs and concerned police officer would attend the session.