Allegations of using zakat, sacrificial hides' money for criminal activities are baseless: Altaf

MQM chief defends Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation, says it has used the money to serve humanity

LONDON: Hours after the Sindh Apex Committee meeting, where DG Sindh Rangers said that forcibly collected charity and sacrificial hides were being used by political parties, religious groups and terror outfits to fund private militias and criminal activity, Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain refuted the allegations as baseless.

Addressing the 37th Inception Day of All Pakistan Muttahida Student Organisation (APMSO) celebrations in Karachi via telephone from London, Hussain said that that the army was responsible for protection of territorial boundaries of the country and should not get involved in issues relating to the police and civil administration.

Referring to allegations leveled by DG Rangers Sindh during the apex committee meeting on Thursday about how some people were extorting money under the garb of collecting hides of sacrificial animals and Zakat, Hussain said that the allegations were unfortunate.

He added that he had been working to gather proof against the most corrupt people of the country and their sources of income.

Directing his followers to collect Zakat during Ramazan and hides during Eidul Azha, Hussain defended the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF) as a charity which had used money collected from such sources for serving humanity, especially during natural disasters in the country.

The MQM chief lamented how no notice was being taken of feudal lords throughout the country keeping private jails for punishing peasants.

He added that everyone was pointing towards the presence of weapons in Karachi, but no one was pointing out the blatant use of weapons during the local government elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Hussain also decried an unannounced ban on live broadcast of his speeches on television.