ISLAMABAD, Nov 2: The unbridled inflation in the country has swelled the ranks of beggars in the cities, including the federal capital.

Whereas in the past Afghan refugees stood out as “genuine” in the army of “professional” beggars on Islamabad streets, market places, traffic signals and crossroads, today one spots scores of women and children among them looking genuinely in need of help.

“We have no jobs, so no income. Hunger pushes us into begging. But the rising prices of food and other essentials of life have made even the struggle to survive on charity difficult,” said Nazir Ahmed seeking alms in G-11 Markaz.

Nazir said many of his neighbours in the Katchi Abadi in the sector had to go into begging after long fruitless search for jobs. He himself used to earn a living as a labourer but had to take a begging bowl in his hand after he could not find work weeks and weeks.

It was not a choice but compulsion, he said.

A 10-year-old boy Shahid Niaz at F-10 Markaz said his family had recently come from Gujranwala and he and his four brothers were begging in the streets of the capital.

It has been learnt that a large number of poor Christian families who have come from different cities are squatting on land owned by the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) near Chak Shahzad.

A source revealed an influential person who was charging Rs10, 000 per family to help the squatters settle on Wasa land, was settling them there illegally.

When contacted, the Capita’s Chief Commissioner, Kamran Lashari, said a survey conducted by the local administration has revealed that the number of beggars had gone up in the federal capital in the recent past. The ‘increased number of beggars has become a source of public concern and annoyance. We have launched a campaign to remove beggars from the capital,” the chief commissioner said.

Under the campaign, over 131 beggars have been arrested so far and shifted to Adiala Jail. An Assistant Commissioner (implementation) Capt Fariddud Din (retired) said that legal proceedings had been initiated against them by the anti-beggary cell set up in the office of the additional deputy commissioner (general) ICT.

The assistant commissioner who is in-charge of anti-beggary cell said data relating to the beggars including their fingerprints was being maintained in the cell in order to eliminate the menace of beggary from Islamabad on a permanent basis and curb the re-entry of professional beggars coming into the city from other places.

Edhi Home and reputed NGOs for the rehabilitation of real destitute and deserving poor children and women were being shifted to the Edhi Home. He made it clear that professional beggars would not be spared and those gangs using children and women as beggars would be busted to root out this social curse.

Teams of local administration led by the Chief Commissioner himself, the Deputy Commissioner ICT Amer Ali Ahmad and Mr Farid were conducting raids in markets, and bus stops including G-9 Markaz, Faizabad stop and Pirwadhai More. They had arrested a number of beggars roaming these areas.

According to reports, Pakistan has the fifth highest number of hungry people in the world with almost a quarter of the population suffering from hunger. New statistics confirm that the number of people living in hunger in the world has soared to almost one billion because of the food crisis that the world leaders have failed to find relief against.