MQM ‘granted permission to collect hides’

Karachi
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is said to have been granted permission to collect hides of sacrificial animals during the three days of Eid-ul- Azha under an undertaking given by its senior members, well-placed sources said on Tuesday.
A two-member delegation comprising Dr Farooq Sattar and Arshah Vohra met the Karachi commissioner at the latter’s office three days before Eid-ul-Azha and discussed methods for collecting hides.
Earlier, the MQM had unofficially been told not to collect hides after various quarters expressed their reservations over what they said the party’s forcible way of accumulating hides.
The law-enforcement agencies are understood to have unofficially declared that no party be it political or religious would be allowed to collect hides as that activity resulted in confrontation and disturbed the peace of the city.
However, on Tuesday the MQM met the commissioner to get written permission for collecting hides, a prerequisite as announced in the code of ethics issued by the home department, the sources told The News.
They disclosed that the MQM had been granted permission on the condition that its activists would not carry arms and forcibly ask the people to donate hides to the party.
It was also agreed during the meeting that the party would not put up any posters, banners or camps, would rather encourage voluntarily donation of sacrificial hides to any party and would not create any hurdles in this regard.
Although the party had never forced anybody to donate hides, at the local level certain elements collected hides in the name of the MQM, the sources said, adding that the party had formed a monitoring team to check such elements.

Code of ethics
The Sindh Home Department has disallowed the establishment of camps in public by prospective organisations to collect hides of sacrificial animals during Eid-ul-Azha in the province.
Under a code of ethics notified by department, the use of loudspeakers and flags for conducting campaigns for hides’ collection will remain banned.
Similarly, mosques, seminaries and offices will also be forbidden from making public announcements for the collection of hides.
The home department said the very purpose of drafting and adopting the code of ethics was to avoid a law and order situation in the event of a stiff competition among different organisations vying for hides on the occasion of Eidul Azha.
The prospective relief organisations would be required to obtain prior permission from the commissioner or the deputy commissioner for the collection of hides. The code of ethics also disallows the use of banners and posters for campaigning for this purpose.
There will be a ban also on the use of forcible means to conduct a door-to-door campaign.
People on their own could walk up to the area office of a relief body’s office, or go to a seminary or a mosque to donate hides.
Volunteers of relief bodies and other organisations engaged in transporting hides from one place to another should carry with them their computerised national identity cards, office identity cards and permission letters issued by the commissioner of the deputy commissioner; otherwise, law-enforcement agencies could seize hides.
Every such organisation would formally submit a plan to the deputy commissioner and the senior superintendent of police for the transportation of hides from one place to another so that vehicles being used for the purpose could be provided proper security, said the home department.
There will be a ban on people carrying sticks, rods, batons and weapons during the three holidays of Eidul Azha.