‘Safe charity practices a need of the hour’

There is an urgent need to make people aware of whether their donations are going to genuine welfare organisations or are being pocketed by militant groups.

This was observed at a seminar, Safe communities and safe charity practices, organised by the Sustainable Peace And Development Organisation (SPADO). The event was attended by a number of government and police officials, civil society activists, academics and security experts.

The programme’s participants discussed the role charity and donations play in forming an equitable and just society. They also observed that vigilance, ownership of the city by communities, coordination and cooperation between them and public institutions is crucial to ensure the safety and security of Karachi’s residents. 

Addressing the event, SSP South Javed Akbar Riaz said residents need to inquire about the organisations or individuals asking for their donations. “People hardly know their neighbours in Karachi and, therefore, are unable to report any suspicious person or activity in their neighbourhood.

Thus, a lack of cooperation and vigilance at community level has provides terrorist organisation with a safe space,” he said. NOW Communities Director Farhat Parveen, stated that majority of Karachi’s residents have always known to have given charity, which has benefited the society.

“But with an increase in political, religious and ethnic intolerance in the city, it is very important, particularly in recent times, that our charity actually goes to the deserving people, instead of unintentionally landing in the wrong hands,” she said.

An official of the SPADO, Abubakkar Yousafzai, who has extensively worked on militant charities functional on ground, said proscribed militant outfits have found ways to avoid the government ban on their fundraising.

“They [militant outfits] pose as charity organisation to solicit money from residents who are not aware of the cause these groups support,” he said.  Sharing his experience, Yousafzai said he was threatened by members of a proscribed outfit after residents of a neighbourhood stopped giving charity to them following a seminar they attended on safe charity. 

Stressing on monitoring non-government organisations, an official of the Sindh Social Welfare Department Seema Nazli said the department has been working hard to ensure that all funds or charity donations are being given to registered non-profit organisations and that the funds collected are being utilised in a transparent manner and for the betterment of the society.

Sindh Information Department Director Zeenat Jahan, former vice chancellor of University of Peshawar Dr Qibla Ayaz, security expert Asmat Wazir and SPADO’s chief Raza Shah Khan also spoke at the event.