Edhi launches langer scheme
Thursday, July 03, 2008
By our correspondent
LAHORE:
Abdul Sattar Edhi has launched ‘Free Langar Scheme’ for the poverty-stricken people by establishing 325 Langar-Khanas across the country where, at least, two million people will be provided free meals.
Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club on Wednesday, Edhi said that he had to travel across the country in a bid to collect charity for the poor who could not afford to have proper meals.
He said businessmen had always exploited the poor by causing widespread poverty in the society, adding that landlords, feudals and industrialists were plundering the national exchequer by not paying taxes.
He said that he was warmly welcomed by the middle class people across the country, which offered huge amounts in the form of charity for the poor under his ‘Bheek Mission’. He praised the Pakistanis for being the highest charity giving nation in the world.
“The middle class people hailing from Balochistan, the NWFP, Sindh and the Punjab gave me a handsome amount to start my Langar Khana Scheme,” he said, adding that the US government had offered him millions of dollars for initiating charity programmes for the American people but he had turned down the offer because of
his overwhelming love for the Pakistanis.
Edhi said if the PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif wanted to meet him, he could come on the street where he (Edhi) had been begging money for the poor. He said that Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan and Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Gul had approached him with an offer to elevate him to the office of the president of the country but he refused to accept it because he thought politics was a dirty business. He said the country had faced many trials and tribulations due to the bad policies of politicians.
Edhi launches langer scheme