Elderly beggar in Punjab discovered with Rs500,000 and Saudi visas

A beggar involved in an accident on Sargodha Khushab Road was found in possession of Rs500,000 and multiple visas for Saudi Arabia on Monday, Express News reported.

Upon providing medical aid and transferring him to the hospital, authorities found Rs534,000 and passports with several Saudi visas in his possession.

Local individuals and rescue officials revealed that the elderly man, identified as Mushtaq Ahmed, is allegedly linked to a beggar gang.

Following his recovery, the rescue team returned his money and passports.

For a country where every silk-stocking officeholder embarks on a quick trip abroad for apologetically seeking financial assistance on the grounds of correcting the fiscal mess created by the preceding rulers, the Punjab government’s recent decision to crackdown against ragged beggars on the footpath was nothing but a move of expediency, aimed at diverting attention from the real problem, the corrupt practices that have led to the current economic recession, which has turned even the most dignified citizens into nagging beggars.

Recently, the Punjab government announced its decision to intensify legal action against people living below the poverty line in the provincial capital, who were cushioning their household expenditures by begging on the roads.

Following the amendment made to the Islamabad Prevention of Beggary Act 2019, all beggars and their ringleaders will be put in jail for three months alongside being penalised with heavy fines.

While this initiative might be commended by citizens pestered by insistent beggars at traffic intersections, it came as a bolt out of the blue for those destitute households, whose very survival was contingent upon the generous impulses of passers-by.