Mohsin Aziz’s generosity inspires industrialists to offer free meals to patients

PESHAWAR: Good deeds can certainly serve as an inspiration for many people.

On Thursday, there were reports in the media that industrialists from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were considering to emulate the example of a fellow industrialist to do some charity work. If it materializes, the plan is to provide free meals to patients admitted at the three big public hospitals in the city.

There is always someone who is the first one to do a certain good deed. In this case, it was well-known industrialist Mohsin Aziz who almost eight years ago started offering meals two times a day to patients admitted at the cardiology ward of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), the biggest public sector hospital in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. About two years later, he extended the facility to the Institute for Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine (IRNUM), also located in Peshawar.

The initiative was undertaken under the auspices of the Aziz Foundation, named after Mohsin Aziz’s late father Haji Aziz-ur Rehman, a fresh fruit Peshawar trader commonly known as Haji Aziz Jan. The family now owns textile mills, chipboard and match factories, a paper mills, a formica industrial unit and an ice factory and cold storage. With the increase in the family’s wealth, the Aziz Foundation too has expanded its philanthropic activities and is running a free dialysis centre and a primary school and donating generously to a number of charities and humanitarian causes.

In the presence of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak at the LRH on Thursday, the extension of the Aziz Foundation’s free meals programme to the hospital’s cardio-vascular and cardio-thoracic wards, and the eye and the Medical “A” wards was inaugurated. According to Mohsin Aziz, the total number of patients benefiting from the facility at the LRH has now reached 325 even though the numbers vary keeping in view the weather and other factors. In his speech at the ceremony, Mohsin Aziz said he had extended the facility to more than 300 patients and he expected his only son, Afan Aziz, to make the meals eventually available to 800, which is half the number of patients normally admitted at the LRH.

The praiseworthy aspect of the initiative is the effort made by Mohsin Aziz to make available the meals to the patients in a dignified manner. A number of dishes are provided in a stainless steel tray carried in a trolley to every patient. The popular Green Hut restaurant has been given the contract to prepare and distribute the meals to the patients.
In addition to the LRH, about 70 patients daily are offered two meals by the Aziz Foundation at the IRNUM.

While describing philanthropists such as Mohsin Aziz as an asset to humanity, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said he would be requesting industrialist Liaqat Khan Tarakai, the father of provincial Health Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai to take responsibility for providing free meals to the remaining 800 patients at the LRH. Though Shahram Tarakai was present on the occasion, he didn’t make any formal announcement about his family’s Tarakai Trust accepting the chief minister’s request. The Tarakai Trust could be expected to undertake such charity work considering its past record of philanthropy, particularly at times of natural or man-made emergencies. Its generous support to the internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Malakand division following the 2009 military operation is still remembered. The trust recently announced considerable funds for the IDPs from North Waziristan.

Hoping to use Mohsin Aziz’s example to inspire more industrialists to become involved in charity work, the chief minister later raised the issue in a meeting with a delegation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry led by its President Zahidullah Shinwari. On his prodding, the delegation members agreed to look into the possibility of providing free meals to patients at the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) and the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC). They haven’t yet made any firm commitment to this end as sections of the media erroneously reported on Friday, but it seems the chief minister would continue to motivate them to do the needful. This could take time as the industrialists willing to undertake this charity work would have to be listed and the costs worked out before a system could be devised to implement it. They could replicate the system put in place by the Aziz Foundation or come up with a different method for offering free meals to patients at the KTH and HMC. However, the inspiration for undertaking such philanthropy would always be their fellow industrialist, Mohsin Aziz.