What do you say about a country that is one of the highest charity givers in the world and one of the lowest taxpayers in the world as well? It says a lot. That Pakistanis are not stingy money hoarders, nor are they cheats and deceivers but that they are extremely wary of entrusting their money to governments and institutions who they know will buy luxury cars and live in palaces while the masses suffer a continuous deterioration of life and living standards. The fact that Anatol Leavin in his book Pakistan: A Hard Country mentions that if all counts could be made Pakistanis’ charity giving would be almost five percent of the GDP while the tax to GDP ratio is hardly over eight percent — this is itself a huge reflection of how the desire to give is negated by a system that promotes corruption to a level where organisations and individuals hire tax consultants to improvise ways of evading taxes and then dole out huge amounts to charities without even bothering to take receipts for their donations. The single biggest factor that changes the attitude of the same person from a generous benefactor to a scheming evader is trust. With people and organisations that are trustworthy, Pakistanis do it unthinkingly and heartily.
Charity is given voluntarily and the volunteer wants to give. Tax is given under force and the taxpayer does not want to give. How can we make the taxpayer a volunteer? Well, simply by giving a return on his investment. In more developed countries like Norway and Sweden, people pay the major portion of their income as tax and pay happily. The reason is that in return they get the best possible education for their children free of cost; the same is the case with health and other facilities. In Pakistan, the classic case of zakat deduction epitomises the level of distrust and suspicion that exists in the government’s ability to justify using people’s money. Pakistanis by and large, due to religious reasons, do want to give zakat but they do all sorts of misreporting in collusion with their banks to avoid the compulsory zakat deduction in Ramzan only to give it generously to many deserving causes.
The desire to contribute to something beyond oneself exists in every human being. The motivation behind that desire may differ. For some people it may be a religious compulsion. The original concept of zakat being a mandatory act was to ensure that those who have enough to spare for those who do not, creates a certain level of human sustenance for all. Thus, during the month of Ramzan, most people in some amount or the other want to fulfil their religious obligation. For many others it is not just a Ramzan ritual but a desire to help another human being going through a certain experience, e.g. the most generous and ready givers are the ones who have themselves undergone an experience that has made them more sensitive to this need in others. People who have either gone through an ailment themselves or have seen a dear one go through one are more likely to make an effort in cash or time to raise money in favour of it. Then of course the feeling of guilt is a strong driver for giving. There are two types of guilt: one is the guilt of being better off and seeing so much deprivation around. This sensitivity drives one to try to contribute to the betterment of the underprivileged. The other guilt is that of the rich, especially the ‘dubiously’ rich, who try to whiten their black money by becoming magnanimous to the poor. However, the real spirit of volunteerism is not to give out of compulsion or guilt but out of your heart, feelings and compulsions to do something for people who are suffering through no fault of their own. That is the awesome example set by great humanitarians like Abdus Sattar Edhi.
Pakistanis as a nation really respond to national disasters. The national response to earthquakes and floods are a prime example of how people from all classes and backgrounds go out of their way to help the affected in every way possible. The catastrophe of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) may not be a natural disaster but it is definitely a disaster that needs the same volunteer spirit. Natural disasters are more moving because of the tragic pictures of houses destroyed and children being injured. The stories told by the media are heart rending and thus the moving pictures play a big part in moving the spirit of the people. However, in the case of the IDPs, the pictures shown are of long lines and people waiting unhappily for their registration and rations. As the media is not allowed to go to the affected areas, the visuals are not as moving as those in a natural disaster. However, stories now infrequently appearing in the media are quite harrowing. On a recent visit to Karak, where now many of the IDPs are moving due to overcrowding in Bannu, the IDPs had tales of horror to tell. While we do get reports on the number of militants killed, we have absolutely no report on the number of innocent people killed. Some of the IDPs had to leave their lifelong abodes due to the horrors of seeing neighbours blown up or constant bombing and fires making it impossible for their children to sleep. This tragic part of the displacement is not really media covered and thus the spirit of volunteerism is restricted to financial and food aid as what is visible are people who need food and shelter.
The spirit of Ramzan is the spirit of personal sacrifice and to feel for the less privileged. It is however interpreted by most as early time off from work, iftar feasts and license to be upset and irritable. The IDPs in Karak need food supplies and shelter, but even more they need somebody who can listen to their woes, give them a sense of belonging and spark their day with a ray of hope. The feeling of not only being run out of their homes but being treated as unwanted suspects in many provinces of Pakistan has deeply wounded their sensitivities. These are the real scars where a true volunteer spirit is required, where the government needs to let NGOs — foreign and local — who are experts in these traumas, come forward like they did during natural disasters to be part of this crisis management, where the media needs to be allowed to raise voice for the trauma the IDPs have gone through in the tribal areas and are going through presently, where the true Pakistani spirit of volunteerism makes young and old go to these families and makes them part of their own families.
The writer is an analyst and columnist and can be reached at [email protected]