UAE | Government

Pakistani diplomat warns of swindlers network

Says Makaland and Swat Valley fundraising efforts to be done through authorised bodies only.

  • By Ashfaq Ahmed Chief Reporter
  • Published: 23:14 May 28, 2009
  • Gulf News

  • Pakistan Senator Abdul Nabeel Bangash (left) and Khursheed Ahmad Junejo, Pakistan's Ambassador to the UAE (right), met with other members of the Pakistani community to raise funds for internally displaced people in Swat Valley.
  • Image Credit: Supplied picture

Dubai: A top Pakistani diplomat has warned against 'swindlers' collecting money in the name of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Malakand, including Swat Valley.

"We have received reports that some people are raising funds and relief goods illegally. Beware of them and donate either to the Pakistani missions or other authorised bodies," added Khursheed Ahmad Junejo, Pakistani ambassador.

Junejo was speaking at a fund raising function organised by Senator Abdul Nabil Bangash, president of the Awami National Party in the UAE and chairman of the United Forum - a welfare organisation based in Dubai.

The ambassador said that no individual was allowed to collect funds.

"We will also monitor the Pakistani associations and the social centres collecting relief goods and funds to ensure transparency," he said.

He revealed that some funds were misused in the past and were sent to particular religious groups but added that such practices would not be permitted any more.

Around Dh500,000 was raised at the charity dinner which was attended by members of the different political parties including Chaudhry Noor Ul Hassan Tanveer from the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz); Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal from the Pakistan Peoples Party and members of the Awami National Party (ANP).

Tanveer Khaja and Abdul Sattar Paredesi from the Pakistan Business Council also gave donations.

Junejo also said he would form a team comprising community members to go to the IDP camps and distribute the relief goods with their own hands.

He said that the military operation would hopefully be complete by August this year and that the next challenge would be to rehabilitate people after they go back to their areas.

He said that he was also in talks with the etisalat to start an SMS service in aid of affected people.

Senator Bangash said that there are more than 2.5 million IDPs including around 70,000 pregnant women.

"They are suffering in heat and there is acute shortage of medicines, water, food, fans and sanitary kits," he said. He told the gathering that he would take the first relief team in the first week of June to distribute relief goods.

Abdul Sattar Paredesi, a leading social and welfare worker in Dubai, informed the gathering that a number of professional 'beggars' had approached him and other traders and shopkeepers in the Central Business District of Deira and Bur Dubai asking for cash donations for IDPS.

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