Mayor asks philanthropists to help LGs provide rations to poor

As union committees (UCs) of Karachi have been compiling the data of needy persons in their jurisdiction, the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF), the charity wing of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), has started providing free rations to deserving people.

Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar said this on Friday as he monitored distribution of rations in a UC of Gulberg Town. “The local government’s elected representatives are distributing rations according to the lists they made earlier,” he said.

Around 2,800 needy families have been identified alone in Gulberg Town that lies in District Municipal Corporation (DMC) Central.

Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Senior Director Coordination Masood Alam, UC Chairman Syed Fareed Hussain and other officials of the KMC were also present on the occasion.

The mayor asked the needy people not to worry due to the lockdown as committees had been formed in every area of the city for the distribution of rations.

"The demand for rations is very high but we don't have resources to cater to the needs of the entire city,” Akhtar said, adding that due to their limited resources, they had asked philanthropists to cooperate in the relief work.

The mayor expressed the hope that every needy family of the city would get essential commodities. The KMC, he said, was distributing rations without any discrimination on the basis of caste or creed.

He asked the people of Karachi not to lose hope. “Unity is the need of the hour,” he said.

"We are well aware of the miseries of daily wagers due to the lockdown but things may go out of control if the lockdown is lifted,” he remarked and added that the morale of the local government representatives was high in these hard times. The COVID-19 pandemic has destabilised the global economy Akhtar said.