KARACHI: The charity wing of the Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation, on Monday launched a free ambulance service in Karachi.

“This [welfare work] is our key area for which we are known across Pakistan,” JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed told reporters at the launching ceremony held at the Markaz-i-Taqwa in Gulshan-i-Iqbal. “After launching several such projects in rural and disaster-hit areas of the country, we now plan to expand to facilitate the maximum number of people.”

“We are neither a political party nor do we have an electoral agenda. So we are stick to our social welfare projects.”

In the first phase, the Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation would operate a fleet of 15 ambulances in all city districts and the number of vehicles would be increased gradually, he added.

“We are operating an ambulance service in 118 cities across the country. From Tharparkar in Sindh to Turbat in Balochsitan and from Sadiqabad in Punjab to Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Paktunkhwa, you would find footprints of our welfare projects in every corner of the country,” he said.

In response to a question, he said his organisation did not face resistance in any welfare project from the administration and area people and it was widely regarded for its integrity and the benefits it brought to the poor.

“So we are not going to abandon these projects. A certain class and a certain group are targeting our organisation for a certain agenda.

We are not a political party so any propaganda to malign us would not prevent us from our actual job, which is not to win votes but to win the hearts of people through social services,” he added.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play