KARACHI: Speakers at an orientation session on ‘Safe Charity Practices’ in Karachi stressed on the need of coordination among all stakeholders to check the flow of money to banned charity groups.
The orientation session was organised by Individualland Pakistan, a research-based advocacy group, and was held at a local hotel in Karachi.
The session was aimed at orienting youth volunteers to conduct an awareness campaign on safe charity practices with the small traders in three prominent markets of Karachi, namely, Saddar, Bolton Market and Tariq Road.
Many traders’ associations’ presidents, vice presidents and other prominent members also participated in the session.
While addressing the participants, the Traders’ Association Bolton Market president was of the view that “small traders can play an important role in curtailing the financial resources of banned outfits as they often allow such charity groups to place their charity boxes at various shops for donations.”
The Small Traders’ Association Tariq Road president, while speaking to the audience, reiterated the need to stop the financing of banned charity organisations operating in the city.
He was of the view that “we need to look out for banned charity organisations that collect donations in the name of downtrodden segments of the society.”
The participants lauded the efforts of Individualland Pakistan for highlighting such an important issue.
In Pakistan, more than $ 5.4 billion is collected as charity annually. However, a significant portion of this money goes to charities being operated by banned outfits and the people donating this money also remain oblivious of how their money is being used.
Despite the fact that the National Action Plan (NAP) entails blocking of financial assets and supply lines of banned militant groups, new groups under the garb of charity organisations keep on surfacing.
A similar charity organisation has been launched recently in Karachi that has links to a political/ideological organisation banned since 2012.