MQM-P revives charity wing to help lockdown affectees
April 02, 2020
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has announced that it will revive the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF), the dormant charity wing of the party, to help those affected by the lockdown in the port city, reported The News.
MQM-P also said that it was collecting blood donations for the organisations working for the treatment of thalassemia patients.
The party had already announced that it was suspending its political activities, and directed the party members to play an active role in the relief activities under the KKF’s banner. The MQM-P MNAs and MPAs along with their local government bodies’ representatives are also carrying out welfare work in the city.
On Wednesday, MQM-P convenor Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi visited a camp set up at the KKF’s central office in Federal B Area to collect blood donations.
“The party understands that the organisations working for the treatment of thalassemia patients have been facing the shortage of blood since people have been at home on the government’s order as part of a preventive measure against the spread of coronavirus,” said Siddiqui.
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“It is the reason that the party has decided to collect donations of blood for them at a large scale because there are thousands of children suffering from thalassemia who need a regular blood transfusion, but due to the shortage their lives are at risk now.”
The party has also asked its district leadership to provide free cooked food to the needy people who are affected because of the lockdown.
Syed Aminul Haq, the MQM-P’s coordination committee member said the party’s affiliated local government representatives were distributing food items among the residents at the neighbourhood level after collecting it from local donors and affluent people.
“But at a central level, the party is collecting essential commodities and food items at a large scale and will distribute them in the province’s major urban centres, including Karachi and Hyderabad,” Haq told The News.
Downfall and revival
Since its formation in 1978, the KKF had been carrying out its operation, such as running ambulances, funeral buses, morgues, dispensaries, blood banks and even a university. While most of these services were based in Karachi, the KKF had spread its services to other parts of the province too, particularly in Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas.
However, after the August 2016 speech of MQM founder, the KKF came under the law enforcement agencies' crackdown. After the LEAs started scrutinising the KKF over the allegations of money laundering and the usage of ambulances in terrorism, the MQM-P, which emerged a separate entity after separating itself from the party founder in London, disbanded the KKF’s services temporarily.
However, the MQM-P leaders said the party has now reactivated the KKF after forming a board of governors and opening new bank accounts to keep transparency in the charity's affairs. “The MQM-P and the KKF have nothing to do with a single person’s affairs of the past. After August 22, 2016, both the organisations have started a new journey,” said Haq.
He said the party will also reactivate its ambulance services in the upcoming months. “Our ambulances need some repairs and hopefully they will be on the roads of the city to help the residents,” he said.
The MQM-P leader added the KKF’s morgues were still active in Malir and North Karachi and running 12 funeral bus services in different parts of the city.
Originally published in The News
