Daily Times

Charity is a serious business in Pakistan. You must be wondering why I am putting so much emphasis on its seriousness. The fact of the matter is that Pakistanis give more than Rs 650 billion in charity annually. Perhaps a simple comparison will give you a clear idea of how big this amount is. The circular debt owed by the government of Pakistan to the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Independent Power Producers (IPPs) is a staggering Rs 393 billion.

The culture of charity is so deeply entrenched in our society that people belonging to even lower economic classes do charity, at least on special occasions like the month of Ramzan, Muharram, and on Eid days. So the assumption that only affluent classes are running the charity circle in the country is not true.

Large corporate style organisations are also involved in the collection of charity. Take the example of large tertiary-care hospitals operating in the country. They have very well organised charity wings or foundations working under their auspices. These organisations collect millions of rupees in charity every year in the name of free medical facilities for the poor or for far-off areas of the country.

Charity collection boxes placed in shops, shopping malls, restaurants, and other public places are also a very common sight in our country. Mosques and madrassahs also collect charity on regular basis, in addition to organisations like the Falah-i-Insaayat that runs mass campaigns for fitrana, sadkat, and hides collection.

According to the Federal Ministry of Information, 81 percent of the population gives charity in cash and kind. ‘Kind’ here should be understood as animal hides, clothes, and equipment like chillers and, heaters. The month of Ramzan is, of course, the peak time of the year for charity giving with 72 percent of all charity given in this month. However, charity is done throughout the year with 74 percent of it going to mosques. On the contrary, hospitals get only 5 percent.

How do people decide who to donate their funds to varies from province -to-province, according to the Information Ministry research. In the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Gilgit-Balitstan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, individuals chose their preferred charity themselves. The family influences this decision in Sindh and Punjab. I would have thought it would be the opposite but these are the figures shared by the Ministry of Information. In Baluchistan, religion is the primary influencer.

One of the problems, or should I say flaws, in the mechanism of doing charity followed in our country is that most of us don’t bother to inquire about the person or organisation to whom we donate money. This has a lot to do with our religious fervour, as we are often told not to ask too many questions, because the idea is that it is not the money that reaches God but piety of the person who is doing charity.

I don’t want to question this philosophy, but then again, we live in a country where hundreds of organisations collect money in the name of charity and use this money for spreading terror and extremism. Recently, a suicide bomb attack in Lahore claimed the lives of four soldiers of the Pakistan Army, who were deployed on census duty. The involvement of many banned organisations and their charity wings in spreading terror in the country is a fact, yet we don’t act responsibly and give our hard-earned money to individuals and organisations without asking a single question.

Being responsible citizens of the state, it must be our prime duty to thoroughly investigate whereabouts of organisation or person to whom we intend to donate money. However, it is also important that the government, its allied organisations and the media create awareness among the masses about banned organisations.

The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) already maintains a list of organisations banned in the country. However, this list is not made public and can be accessed only if you have links in either the NACTA or the Interior Ministry. If I don’t have access to such information, I might un-knowingly be funding a banned organisation. After all, what is the point of keeping this list secret? The process and the criteria on the basis of which an organisation is banned also need to be part of the public discourse. Why is this only an executive decision? Why isn’t this discourse brought to the Parliament so that the public and its representatives get to know about banned organisations.

Of course, it is not enough to just ban organisations as repeatedly we have seen them re-emerge under different names. A rose might be a rose by any name in Shakespearean terms, but so will be the case with a thorn. Ceasing an organisation’s bank accounts while letting its director operate personal accounts is merely paying lip service to the cause of curbing terrorist financing.

With Shaban and Ramzan around the corner, we need to know who and what are we funding before we delve into our pockets.

The writer is a development consultant. She tweets at @GulminaBilal and can be reached at coordinator@individualland.com