Ajmer dargah awaits Zardari’s Rs 50m

Three-and-a-half months after President Asif Ali Zardari announced a donation of Rs 50 million for the Ajmer Sharif dargah during his visit to the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisty, the money is still being awaited. Times Of India spoke on phone with Pakistan’s minister for population welfare, Dr Firdaus Ashiq Awan, and minister of state for parliamentary affairs, Mehreen Anwar Raja, on the status of the donation, but both passed the buck to the president’s office, indicating that the government had nothing to do with Zardari’s pledge. But the Pakistani High Commission in India said arrangements were in place to make the donation as announced by President Zardari in April. The commission issued a brief statement terming them as “speculative” and said the “arrangements are in hand” to make the donation as announced. “The High Commission thanks the Government of India, the State Authorities, and the Dargah Committees for their cooperation in this regard,” it said. Earlier, a member of dargah committee said it “is unimaginable that the head of an Islamic state has failed to fulfill his words before this revered shrine”. Zardari visited the 12th century shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisty with his son and chairman of Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Ali Bhutto on April 8. Minutes before his cavalcade left the dargah, he asked the Anjuman Syed Zadgan Committee to “get in touch with Pakistan High Commission” for release of the grant. The high commission showed urgency and sought development proposals from the dargah committee and Anjum Syed Zadgan committee. Heads of several states have visited the Ajmer shrine. The dargah has a record of such visits since 1455.