CHITRAL:  Beggary is a curse which is growing at a fast pace in our country as are other vices. Although the government through it’s administration can check this menace effectively but it does not give importance to it- probably because itself it is in habit of begging from other countries, IMF etc and therefore takes it as normal thing.

Chitral being essentially a valley is congenially so constituted that anything can be monitored and managed easily inside it, and the people are so docile and compliant that any administrative order is easily enforced within it. Examples are the Patwari system, Female executives/judges etc were first experimented in Chitral before applying them to other districts of the Division.

Summer will soon be here and beggars of sorts from down Pakistan will head towards Chitral to take advantage of the good weather and the kind heartedness of the people. We will see families of beggars with teen age and pre-teenage children and even baby-carrying women in the bazars of Chitral.

Beggary is not only about asking for free money. It is a mindset that is extremely loathful. A beggar sells his/her self respect and conscience to begin with and would be ready to do anything for free money – Our country is a larger example in the comity of nations.

To counter the growing menace of beggary in Chitral, the Administration should set up a task force to round up beggars on daily basis from Bazars, outside mosques etc where they like to be, and put them in the shelter homes and feed them from the langar khanas which the govt proudly advertises, and make them do some kind of hard labour- extraneous physical exercise if nothing else, for a week and during this time detox them through religious sermons on beggary and then deport the external beggars and warn the local beggars to quit begging. The deported beggars will never name Chitral again and will even warn their fellows in crime (beggary) not to make the mistake of visiting Chitral. .. CN report, 02 may 2024