Parties continue relief work for citizens affected by anti-corona measures

Karachi’s political parties, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) and the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) continue to engage in relief work to provide free rations to the underprivileged people affected by the lockdown that has been in place to slow down local transmission of COVID-19.

Despite the passage of two weeks since the lockdown, the Sindh government is yet to start the distribution of free rations to the needy. However, political parties, mainly from the opposition, have been handing out cooked food and rations among the people in different areas.

The political parties have already made the announcement of suspending all of their political activities, asking each of the members of their respective parties to play an active role in the relief activities.

MQM-P

Under the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF), the MQM-P’s charity wing that has been recently reactivated, the party has intensified its relief activities to provide free rations to the needy in various neighbourhoods of the city.

On Sunday a large number of trucks loaded with food items were despatched from the KKF’s central office in the Federal B Area to different parts of the metropolis. MQM-P convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, senior deputy convener Aamir Khan and other members of the party’s coordination committee were present on the occasion.

Siddiqui said trucks loaded with essential food items were despatched to Scheme 33, Mehmoodabad, Lyari, Surjani Town, Malir, Lines Area and Liaquatabad, where MQM-P workers and KKF volunteers would take them to the doorsteps of the needy.

The party said their charity wing has also intensified its activities in interior Sindh, where MQM-P workers and KKF volunteers have been providing free rations to the needy affected by the lockdown.

Siddiqui also talked to the office-bearers of the MQM-P and the KKF from Sukkur and Nawabshah zones through video conferencing on Sunday seeking the details of the ongoing relief activities in their respective areas.

MQM-P coordination committee members Zahid Mansoori of Karachi and Dr Zafar Kamali of Nawabshah, incharge for interior Sindh’s affairs Saleem Razaq, MPA Nasir Qureshi of Hyderabad and other office-bearers attended the conference and informed the party’s convener about the KKF’s activities.

Siddiqui said that under the KKF, the party has been making efforts despite financial constraints to provide food to the residents of the province’s urban centres, including Karachi, who are suffering due to the lockdown.

A day earlier MQM-P leader Faisal Subzwari and MPA Hamid-uz-Zafar had visited Korangi to oversee the party’s relief activities for providing free rations to the needy at their doorsteps. Subzwari directed the chairman of the Korangi district municipal corporation and the relevant local government representatives to carry out antibacterial sprays in different neighbourhoods of the district.

PSP

Pakistan House, the PSP’s secretariat has been keeping busy with relief activities as the party’s charity wing, the PSP Foundation, has been packing, loading and unloading free rations to distribute among the needy affected by the lockdown.

PSP Chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal and President Anis Kaimkhani have been not only overseeing the relief activities but also participating in them, which has greatly helped boost the morale and enthusiasm of the workers.

On the occasion, Kamal paid rich tributes to the workers engaged in the relief activities, saying that these difficult times give everyone the opportunity to please Allah Almighty. “We will help each other in this difficult period.”

He said the PSP Foundation has been ensuring that rations reach the doorsteps of the needy and the families of white-collar workers, especially in the underprivileged localities, who are in dire need of food and groceries during the lockdown.

In this connection, people who are well-off, especially those running their own businesses, and other donors from different walks of life are also transporting supplies to the relief camps set up at the Pakistan House for the citizens hit by the COVID-19 emergency, added Kamal.

TLP

From the distribution of rations among the needy to the spraying of disinfectants in mosques, the TLP has expanded its relief efforts, according to the party’s spokesman Muhammad Ali Razvi.

He said that for the past several days the TLP has been not only distributing free rations but also meat among the people who are in need of relief. “For this purpose, the party has been sacrificing a large number of cattle on a daily basis so that meat can be distributed among the people,” he said. The TLP has also started spraying disinfectants in mosques, he added.