PESHAWAR, Mar 07 (APP):The swarm of professional and nonprofessional beggars arrived from different cities of Khyber Pakthunkhwa to Peshawar have started irritating people in the holy month of Ramazan.
In spite of begging has been declared illegal under the country’s laws, the beggars’ influx including male, female, children and persons with disabilities are being witnessed in the jam-packed crossing points, mosques’ gates and mostly frequented public places and food outlets in the city and cantonment areas mostly before Aftar, irritating people during shopping.
These baggers have occupied key places at Hashtnagri, Gantagar, Firdus, Nothia, Tehkal, Gulbahar, Faqirabad, Meena Bazaar, Karimpura, Shafi Market, Saddar Road, University Town, City Tower, Jawad Tower and Deans Trade Centre.
Most professional beggars employ various tricks to exploit human nature and religious sentiments by crying, weeping and chasing people in public places while wearing miserable attire. They stayed at shopping malls, mosques, road signals, bus terminals, railway stations, traffic squares and streets at Peshawar, making shopping difficult ahead of Iftar.
The unchecked trained beggars are pestering iftar shoppers in markets or running after them or behind their cars to collect maximum alms in the name of Zakat, Sadqa and Khairat.
Some beggars roaming with exposed wounds keep on holding and touching customers when they come out of their vehicles, which may expose them to contiguous diseases and viral infections including TB, flu and chest related infections.
It has been witnessed that some beggars were emotionally blackmailing people by carrying medical prescriptions and disability certificates.
‘Alms’ seekers can also be seen in city markets asking for charity in the name of construction of mosques while many beggars were resorting to lame-duck excuses like seeking treatment of their ailing family or lost jobs.
“Begging has emerged as a major social evil in recent years to the nuisance of Peshawarties,” Professor Sundas Amin who was irritated by beggars for Iftar shopping at Pabbi bazaar Peshawar.
Besides bazaars and shopping arcades, he said the shoppers were facing great inconvenience at traffic signals, food restaurants, bus terminals, railways stations, mosques, hospitals, markets and public places due to swarms of beggars in Peshawar.
“It is heartbreaking to see young girls’ and boys’ beggars carrying wipers in hands often start cleaning car windows on traffic signals without permission in order to get money,” she said.
He said some beggars come with flowers, garlands, caps and rosary to give an impression that they are selling it, but actually they beg for money without an intention of selling anything.
Faraz Khan, a resident of Nowshera said he was busy shopping for Iftar along with his family at Qissa Khwani where a teenage beggar with black colour in hand rushed towards him, asking for money or otherwise his clothes would be made dirty.
“In order to save my clothes, I immediately offered him Rs50, which was refused. On several requests, the beggar accepted Rs 100 and started running towards other shoppers by using the same technique that was intolerable in a civilized society.
He demanded the KP government to take instantaneous action against swarms of beggars in the city so that people could take a sigh of relief and do Iftar shopping with ease. “Beggary has been declared illegal under West Pakistan Loitering Ordinance 1958,” said Noman Bukhari advocate.
Unfortunately, he said this law had not been fully implemented, which resulted in an increase of beggars especially during Ramazan. The central and provincial laws such as Control of Narcotics Substance Act 1997, West Pakistan Vagrancy Ordinance 1959, Pakistan Employment of Children Act 1991, KP Child Protection and Welfare Act (KPCPWA) 2010 and KP Orphanage Supervision and Control Act 1976 had been promulgated to check drug addiction and streets begging.
Similarly, KPCPWA was enacted in 2010 to protect rights of women and children, but it has not been fully implemented on ground, resulting in swarms of beggars in Peshawar.
He said the role of Child Welfare Commission (CWC) was important to provide protection to child beggars in KP. The KP government imposed a ban on child beggars in the Sindh province and directed the social welfare department to pick child beggars from markets, roads, traffic signals, streets and rehabilitate them at their welfare centres.
The spokesman of the social welfare department said that special drives were launched to shift drug addicts and beggars to rehabilitation centres for treatment. Besides treatment, he said these beggars were being provided vocational education and training to make them useful citizens of the society.
He urged well off people to donate alms and charity to their known poor deserving people and reputable organizations having clean service records so that their alms could be used for a noble cause.
