Wearing long loose clothes with heavy bangles around their wrists and attractive rings on their figures, the fake spiritual healers, fake palmists and astrologers are smartly making the people fool.
Whether the problems are related to hindrance in marriage or to win beloved’s attention and any other issue pertaining to business or of societal in nature, these fortune tellers have a remedy for each and every problem, thanks to the ignorance and weaker belief of the people.
During a partial survey of the city, Pakistan Today find a number palmists, parrot astrologists and spiritual healers at the Porri Pul, Committee Chowk, Fawara Chowk, Pirwadhai, Faizabad and Sawan Bus Stand, who were making people fool while applying various tactics.
The palmists dupe people by claiming to bring good luck for them while the spiritual leaders have another story to tell They trap people by painting a dark picture pertaining to their future and suggesting them an instant remedy.
A resident of Multan Nazar Hussain, 35, who is running a grocery shop near Pirwadhai Bus Stand while sharing his ordeal as how he was befooled by a fake spiritual healer, said: “10 years ago when I established my shop, the business was good in the beginning but later on my fortunes took a negative turn. My neighbour told me that he felt there was something wrong in the shop and suggested me to contact an aamal (spiritual healer) for a solution,” he said.
Nazar said while own his way to the nearby wholesale market for purchasing, he saw a spiritual healer at the Pirwadhai Overhead Bridge, who was talking in air.
“Since my neighbour’s advice was in my mind, I contacted the spiritual healer and told him about my declining business. He told me that there was no need to worry as I have reached the right place at the right time,” Nazar recalled. He said during the meeting, the aamal told him that there were evil forces in his shop and demanded Rs 5,000 to counter them. Nazar acted in affirmation but he felt no change in business in the following days. He visited the spiritual healer again and asked him to do something as the situation remained unchanged, Nazar added.
The aamal told him that the forces of evil were very powerful and 21 more days were required to get rid of them for which he (Nazar) was required to pay Rs 5,000 extra. “But I didn’t pay as I realised that man is fake just making a fool out of me,” said Nazar.
Nowadays, Nazar’s business is on the peak and he suggested other frustrated people to just rely on hard work, which is the key to success, and not on the spiritual forces.
During the visits to various spiritual healers, parrot astrologers – fortune tellers who use parrots to pick tarot cards about people’s luck and at palmists stalls, Pakistan Today observed that most of these swindlers’ victims are uneducated people who are easy to be trapped.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Nadeem Khan, a university student, said there was an urgent need to address the issue by launching a pubic awareness campaign. He said educated youth could play an effective role to expose these cheaters. “Every knowledgeable person should tell uneducated people of his locality about the fraud of spiritual healers,” Nadeem suggested.
