PESHAWAR, Dec 29: The NWFP Minister for Social Welfare, Women Development, Zakat and Ushr, Hafiz Mohammad Hashmat Khan, has said that the history of Muslims is replete with stances of social welfare activities for the benefit of the poor and downtrodden, and the MMA government would follow those stances and adopt measures to alleviate the sufferings of the people.
Speaking as a chief guest at the biennial general body meeting of the Islamic Relief Agency Pakistan (Isra-Pak) at the Rural Academy here on Sunday, he said the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal ministers had already established a good precedent by refusing to use new cars, which had been purchased by the government for the incumbent ministers at the cost of Rs40 million.
He expressed concern over the fact that Rs100 million which were supposed to be spent by social welfare department for the poor remained unspent despite the fact that the poor people sold their houses and cattle to meet their treatment expenses at the hospitals.
Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and his caliphs fed the leprosy patients and helped the poor to overcome their hardships.
“Things have turned sour and an imbalanced situation has emerged but the MMA government is trying its level best to cope with the situation,” Khan said.
The people had pinned great hopes on the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government and if it failed to deliver the goods, it would create disillusion among the people about Islam, he said, quoting MMA deputy leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad.
Earlier, the outgoing president of Isra-Pak, Prof Syed Mohammad Abbas gave an outline of the activities the organization had undertaken since its establishment in 1992.
He said Isra-Pak was a charity organization that worked in the fields of health, education, national disasters and other activities aimed at helping the poor, orphans and deserving people through collections of donations from the philanthropists.
Abbas said Isra-Pak had established two schools, one each at Peshawar and Haripur. The Saad Bin Maaz School at Peshawar was established in 1992 and at present had 237 students, most of them were orphans and being provided free education. Similarly, Al-Khuda School at Haripur was established for the deserving students two years back and had enrolled more than 100 students.
Abbas said the organization had collected funds to the tune of Rs2.6 million last year, auditing of which was in progress. The organization, he further said, had also been helping the people of the drought-stricken areas by establishing tubewells and was distributing sacrificial meat among the deserving people in Kashmir, Peshawar and Quetta. Besides, he added, about 2,200 internally displaced families were provided with blankets in Kashmir this year.
Later, a former president of Islamic Relief Agency Pakistan and district assembly speaker, Dr Iqbal Khalil, announced the names of the new body of the Agency, which, he said, had been elected unopposed. They include Syed Zahid Ali, president; Mohammad Asghar, general secretary and Dr Shehrayar Nadeen, vice president.
Khalil said all the workers of the Isra-Pak worked as volunteers and performed matchless services for the humanity and prayed to Almighty Allah to reward them for their contribution to the sacred cause.