Roving Periscope: After terror and donkeys, Pakistan now ‘exports’ beggars!
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: In an acute embarrassment to Pakistan, its co-religionist nations like Saudi Arabia, and Iraq have asked the nearly bankrupt South Asian country to stop ‘exporting’ beggars!
Not surprising though because, according to reports, a tenth of the Pakistani population—25 million in a country of nearly 250 million–resorts to begging either to make a living or as a ‘profession.’ At least 40 percent of Pakistan’s population now lives below the poverty line.
Recently, in a couple of videos that went viral, two Pakistanis were seen begging even on aircraft! One of them somehow broke the security detail and sneaked into the aircraft while the other was seen begging to raise funds for a madrasa he claimed he wanted to set up.
Ninety percent of beggars detained in the two Middle Eastern countries are from Pakistan. After arrest, these beggars stuffed prisons, a Pakistani official was quoted as saying in the media reports.
Envoys of Iraq and Saudi Arabia have told Pakistan that Pakistanis travel in the guise of pilgrims, stay back there, and take to begging.
So far, Pakistan exported ‘Islamist’ terrorism to India and donkeys to China. Cash-strapped and grappling with unprecedented inflation of nearly 40 percent for several months, besides unavailability of electricity and other essential services and commodities to millions, it has also ‘exported’ beggars, so many that Saudi Arabia and Iraq requested Islamabad to stem the flow of beggars on ships.
Not only that, most of the pickpockets arrested from within Mecca’s Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia are Pakistanis, the reports said.
With life becoming unbearable in Pakistan because of multiple crises, beggars are flocking to West Asia in large numbers.
Zeeshan Khanzada, Secretary of the Department of Overseas Pakistanis, told a parliamentary committee that 90 percent of all beggars detained in West Asian nations are from Pakistan.
“Ambassadors of Iraq and Saudi Arabia have told us that Pakistani beggars travel abroad under the guise of ziarat (pilgrimage) on Umrah visas, stay back, and later engage in begging on the streets,” Pakistan’s Geo News Urdu quoted Khanzada as saying.
He also said that the majority of the pickpockets arrested from within Mecca’s Grand Mosque are Pakistani nationals, The News International reported.
During a meeting chaired by Senator Manzoor Kakar, Zeeshan Khanzada informed the Standing Committee that there are nearly 10 million Pakistani citizens living abroad, a substantial number of whom are involved in begging.
Flights to the Middle East from Pakistan are often completely filled with beggars, he revealed.
Officials informed the committee about the presence of 1.6 million Pakistanis in the UAE and 200,000 in Qatar, reported Pakistan’s The Express Tribune.
The Saudi Arabian and Iraqi diplomats also complained that their jails are overcrowded with Pakistani beggars, he said, adding the matter had brought shame on Islamabad worldwide.
Poverty in Pakistan shot up to 39.4 percent in the last financial year, with 12.5 million more people falling into the trap because of poor economic conditions, the World Bank said recently.
The global lender urged Pakistan to take urgent steps to tax its ‘sacred cows’ – agriculture and real estate – and cut wasteful expenditures to achieve economic stability through steep fiscal adjustment of over 7 percent of the economy.
According to the Pakistan Economic Survey (PES) for 2022-23, the country’s population of donkeys went up to 5.8 million from 5.7 million a year before. On demand from China, several animal farms are ‘harvesting’ donkeys.
