Hide collection: Edhi loses out in a game marred by threats and deaths

Charity foundation registers 40% fall in hide donation in Karachi and Hyderabad.

KARACHI:

Whether it’s the intimidating tactics adopted by political and religious outfits or the dying charitable spirit of citizens, the donation of sacrificial animal hides to the country’s largest charitable organisation, the Edhi Foundation, plunged by almost 40% this year in Karachi and Hyderabad.

With approximately 16 million animals slaughtered every year on Eidul Azha across the country, the collection of animal hides is an enormous business - and an extremely profitable one too. Going by the numbers put up by the leather industry, a cow hide easily fetches between Rs2,000 and Rs3,500 while goatskins range between Rs200 and Rs350.

Over the years, many charitable organisations and political and religious parties have joined the race to collect more and more hides during the three days of Eid, advertently leading to clashes - many fatal - among rival activists.

In 2011, the Edhi Foundation collected 7,000 goat hides and around 1,132 cow hides on Eidul Azha. This year, however, the number of goat hides collected was 4,111 and cow hides only 630, according to the foundation’s spokesperson, Anwar Kazmi. This reduction comes in the wake of many political parties claiming a record number of animal hides “received” this year. But the Edhi worker disagrees with them.

“People called us saying they wanted to donate to us, but death threats and parchis [extortion slips] have forced them to give away the hides to other organisations,” Kazmi said, referring to snatchings or house-to-house collection of animal skins by activists.

Without naming any party, he alleged that “welfare wings” of political parties and banned outfits were collecting hides at gunpoint or distributing slips, telling people to give them the hides. “In Hyderabad, Edhi vans were stopped by political activists from entering Latifabad. The drivers were told to turn away and not collect hides,” Kazmi claimed. Since Edhi organisation’s formation in the 1950s, it has been actively collecting hides for the sake of charity and the people trust the foundation, he added.

Denials

The leader of the Peoples Amn Committee, Zafar Baloch, denied that his party or its charity wing was involved in underhand dealings. “We are being accused but everyone knows that it is our rivals who snatch hides,” he said, adding that it was not his party but a non-governmental organisation, the Lyari Resource Centre, which collected animal hides in Lyari.

Hasan Ahmed, a spokesperson for the Jamaat-e-Islami-backed Al Khidmat Foundation, concurred that non-governmental organisations received fewer hides as did seminaries. He blamed another political party of collecting them by force. He claimed that his party had seen a 40% rise in hide donations across the country. On behalf of the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation, Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Wasay Jalil said that other organisations were making excuses by blaming political parties for the decline in their own collection campaigns. “Even in the Punjab, we broke records this year.”

“Anyone who collects hides genuinely should not be stopped.” Neither the Al Khidmat Foundation nor the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation were willing to share figure of how many hides they had collected this year.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2012.