Professional: Police arrest beggar

Amirullah was arrested on Saturday after police found him begging at the Peshawar Mor in Sector G-9/4.

ISLAMABAD: There is a modern Punjabi saying that only when the poor come out to protest, the authorities enforce section 144, a clause in the penal code that prohibits people from congregating. But it rained on Amirullah’s parade in Islamabad even though Section 144 was only imposed in the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi. Amirullah, a beggar in Islamabad, was arrested on Saturday after police found him begging at the Peshawar Mor in Sector G-9/4. Professional begging is a punishable offense in the capital and police routinely cracks down on the beggars, apprehending them from street corners and markets. Amirullah was booked under sections 9 and 10 of the Beggars Act.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2013.