KARACHI, Dec 13: The Khidmat-i-Khalq Foundation on Thursday distributed relief goods worth over Rs one crore among the poor and needy persons, including widows, so that they could also celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr.

The relief goods, which were distributed at a simple ceremony, included sewing machines, blankets, fans, wheel-chairs, bicycles, water-coolers, stitched and unstitched clothes, push-carts loaded with vegetable and fruits, etc.

This is the 23rd year of the functioning of the KKF, and each year, MQM leaders said, relief goods are distributed in the last week of Ramazan so that the less privileged could also enjoy the Eid festivities. This year the MQM said it distributed relief goods worth Rs 12.3 million among over 3,000 needy and deserving people despite the fact that the KKF was not allowed to collected hides and skins and zakat amount owing to its affiliation with the MQM.

Speaking over phone from London, MQM chief Altaf Hussain said service to humanity was a worship and any politics short of service to humanity was no more than a politics of vested interests.

Mr Hussain recalled that during the month of Ramazan-ul-Mubarak, many religious organisations and relief wings of political parties collect donations in the name of help to the needy, but unlike MQM there was not a single political party or religious organisation which extends relief regularly on such a large scale. The MQM, he said, had been doing this service to the poor for the past 22 years.

Likewise in Thar and Balochistan, the KKF volunteers carried out massive relief work in the calamity-hit areas.

He said the KKF was a relief wing of the MQM which was independent and free from political influence of the MQM and its coordination committee. The KKF, he said, had been serving the people in distress without any discrimination.

Soon a KKF dispensary would also be opened in Lyari, said Mr Hussain.

He said besides Nazeer Hussain Medical Centre, the KKF had set up dispensaries in various cities and was serving the people.

“If government allows us to carry out work freely in the country and if no hurdles are created by the establishment in our working, there would be no city in the country without the KKF branches,” he declared.

The MQM chief appealed to the philanthropists to come forward and extend a helping hand to the KKF in extending social services to the people in distress and need.

Aftab Ahmad Shaikh, Deputy chief of MQM Coordination Committee, speaking on the occasion lamented that the MQM was not allowed to collect donations or Zakat and Fitra. The police and the rangers personnel throughout the month continued to arrest MQM workers, he said. Earlier, KKF President Shaikh Liaquat Hussain presented the annual report.