Ordinary Pakistanis are bearing the entire burden of the daunting inflation and sky-rocketing price hike due to the prevailing economic crisis.

In such a situation, Greetings to those benevolent Pakistanis and those charitable organizations that are taking the responsibilities of relief work and are taking the injured to the hospital, bathing the dead, providing treatment to unprivileged, distributing rations and providing living places to special persons and the senior citizens.

There are no facilities available to them from the successive governments. These charities are collecting billions of rupees from the donations of the compatriots, from Zakat, from Fitrana and spending them in the fields of education, health and employment. 

Due to the current economic crisis, millions more are falling below the poverty line every day.  A large population is grinding in poverty since the creation of Pakistan and the recent crisis has wreaked havoc with the sources of livelihood of the common man. We must be concerned about how these six and a half crore extremely poor countrymen spend their days and nights. 

However, it is welcome that many responsibilities of the state are being fulfilled by the philanthropists and charitable organizations through the Zakat and charity money. Heartfelt prayers for service that they are involved in distribution of rations in deserts, forests, mountains, coastal areas, dissemination of education and distribution of winter and summer clothes. All our sympathies and best wishes to the brothers that they come to the aid of their countrymen in times of trouble and need.

Salute to the head and staff of Indus Hospital, Smile Again, Karachi Burns Hospital, Kiran Hospital,  etc for providing high quality treatment free of charge to the poor. The Citizen Foundation, Edhi Foundation, Alamgir Trust, Seelani, Kiran Foundation, Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan School System, Chippa, Syed Sports Foundation and other such organizations are doing selfless welfare work worth billions of rupees in Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab, KPK, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad. And at the same time, in the service of all these properties and people, the young men are giving generous donations and zakat to the organizations and they sincerely understand that there is no benefit in giving zakat to the state.

These organizations help the real beneficiaries. Therefore, the right of zakat can be paid here. Organizations working for orphans, widows, unemployed, disabled, injured, patients, all of them should receive zakat and donations.

Then the tradition of hosting free meals at Iftar and Sehri is also at peak in Ramazan and the roadside depict a scene of real relief for the poor who throng to these sites at Iftar and at Sehri to get free meal.

Every day we hear the news that the richest man in the world, Bill Gates, gave 30 billion dollars, Warren Buffett 26 billion dollars and Andrew Carnage 10 billion dollars. In this way, we get to know the names of the great philanthropists of the world, but such news about a Muslim philanthropist remains hidden from our eyes. Perhaps very few people know the fact that the world’s largest charity is Zakat, in the name of which Muslim philanthropists donate 500 billion dollars every year.

Like other Islamic countries, Pakistan is among the top charity and zakat giving countries in the world. In Pakistan, the process of giving Zakat and charity continues throughout the year, but it increases many times during Ramadan, and people open their hearts and distribute a large amount of money to the poor and deserving in the form of Zakat and donations in this holy month. According to a survey by the Pakistan Center for Philanthropy, the amount given by Pakistanis in the form of Zakat, Fitrana and donations has exceeded 240 billion rupees. According to a survey, Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, ranks first among charitable cities, and the people of Karachi give 75 billion rupees to charity annually, while at the provincial level, 113 billion rupees are given annually in Punjab, in Sindh. 78 billion rupees, 38 billion rupees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 10 billion rupees in Balochistan are given as Zakat. Government also every year on 1st of Ramadan deducts 2.5% of the amount of zakat from the account holders of the banks, from which the government gets more than 4 billion rupees, but due to the lack of trust in the government, most of the account holders avoid deducting their zakat amounts during the month of Ramadan. They leave a little amount in their bank accounts before the arrival or submit the Zakat declaration. If this is not done, the government can get many times more money in the form of Zakat. Due to the lack of trust in the government, philanthropists feel happy by directly helping the welfare institutions, the poor and the deserving with their zakat, charity and donations, but in today’s social media era, the element of appearance and exposure is being added to it. There is no harm in doing so as we this serves as a source of inspiration for others to donate and take part in charitable work.

And last but not the least, there is one drawback of of the ration and food distribution ceremonies as well and that is the mismanagement of such programmes sometime. Every year many people die as a result of a stampede during the distribution of rations in Ramadan. The heartbreaking incident of the death of 12 people including 3 children and 9 women as a result of a stampede during the distribution of cash and free rations in the Site area of ??Karachi has depressed every Pakistani and the demand is getting stronger that preventive measures should be taken so that the precious lives can be saved from such tragic deaths.

Published in The Daily National Courier, April, 07 2023

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