PESHAWAR, March 8: Widows, orphans and other destitute people held a demonstration outside the Peshawar Press Club on Thursday and demanded of the United Nations to lift ban on Al Rasheed Trust.

Holding placards and banners and raising slogans in favour of the trust, the demonstrators also called upon the government to unlock offices of the charity across the country, unfreeze its accounts and allow its volunteers to serve the people.

They said the trust had been helping poor people across the country with food, medicines and shelter for several decades.

The demonstrators, over hundred in number, urged the UN to differentiate between terrorists and welfare organisations.

They said the trust had served the ailing humanity irrespective of the colour, caste, creed and gender, but the UN banned it because it was a Muslim organisation. They said the ban had affected thousands of widows, orphans and poor people.

A widow said the trust had given sewing machines to her and a lot of others like her so that they could earn their livelihood in a dignified way.

Another demonstrator said the trust had served the people affected by the October 8 earthquake for which President Pervez Musharraf had himself praised it. Even western welfare organisations had awarded the trust with appreciation certificates, he added.

The demonstrators also distributed handbills among journalists carrying a record of the services rendered by the trust.

According to the handbill, the trust had so far spent Rs175 million on health, Rs656 million on food supplies, Rs150 million on clothes and Rs125 million on provision of shelter. The trust also spent Rs1,500 million under its emergency plan in the areas affected by floods and famine.