KARACHI, 2 July — Ashiq Zaman comes from a remote village north of Peshawar. But the 55-year-old man spends the best part of every year in Karachi. He has been doing that for the last couple of decades.
Most of the 1,000 or so people of his village may be living below poverty line but Zaman has a properly-built house which in a village of small mud houses makes him an important man. He has some land and his five sons have all been to school — a rare thing for most of his relatives and neighbors.
Zaman has managed to do all that by adopting a profession that most will only opt for in desperate conditions. He is a full-time beggar.
With a thin frame, a broken leg and years of experience, Zaman makes a good living out of hours of begging in some of the busiest streets of Karachi.
He says he has nothing to hide. “I am a beggar and I am not ashamed of it,” he says. “When you can’t get a job that pays you enough to feed your family there is little else one can do. At least I am not a criminal.”
Zaman says he makes 300 to 1,000 rupees a day, depending on the season. In Ramadan, his income increases. There are thousands of Zamans in a city of over ten million that attracts job seekers from other parts of the country like lamps attract moths.
According to a conservative estimate, there are almost 100,000 beggars in Karachi who roam the streets of the city with most of them making more money than a man with a white collar job. But less than a quarter of all beggars active in the city are actually destitute while others are parts of various mafias operating in the metropolis.
According to a report, nearly 25,000 people, mostly from other parts of the country earn their livelihood through charity and alms in the city everyday.
Unlike beggars like Zaman, these are really needy people who have opted for begging as the last resort.
Little is being done by the government to help these people though there is a huge Zakah and Ushr Fund that is sanctioned from the national budget for the poor.
A poor distribution system makes it impossible for most of the deserving people to get any financial help from the government.
One such example is that of Badar Ali. Hailing from a village in central Punjab, the physically-handicapped Badar tried his level best to get some help from the Zakah and Ushr Department but all his pleas went in vain. He finally joined the herds of beggars to make his both ends meet.
With the authorities turning a blind eye to the menace of begging, one can see old men, women, children in shopping areas and other public places. People like Zaman and Badar wake up in the morning and roam this city of light till late night and at times make more money than members of the city’s working class.
