Beggary: Desperate pleas for alms agitate city’s residents
PESHAWAR ( APP): As the dawn of the New Year 2025 emerged in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a troubling sight in the form of an influx of beggars resurfaced in Peshawar with begging bowls everywhere.
The streets, bazaars, and public spaces in most parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa especially in Peshawar are once again dominated by professional and nonprofessional beggars, who are gripping the attention of passersby with outstretched hands and desperate pleas for alms and charity.
The beggars ranging from elderly and sick to young children, swarmed around the busiest areas in hopes of securing a living by exploiting the goodwill of the city’s residents.
In Peshawar, the most well-known areas including Qissa Khwani Bazaar, Hashtnagri, Gantagar, Firdus, Nothia, Tehkal, Gulbahar, Faqirabad, Karimpura, Saddar, and beyond — beggars are a common sight, positioned strategically near shopping malls, mosques, road signals, bus terminals, and traffic intersections.
These key points are often teeming with people, making them ideal spots for beggars to appeal to the generosity of the city’s shoppers, travellers, and commuters.
With each passing day, the number of beggars, including families with children and elderly people suffering from debilitating conditions, appears to grow in KP due to unemployment, poverty, and social marginalization.
“I started begging after the death of my father Shamas Khan, who died due to lung cancer,” said Mustafa Khan, a professional beggar at Hashtnagri bazaar.
“I was left with no other option but to start begging to repay the huge amount borrowed by my mother for treatment of my father who left me at a very young age,” Mustafa told APP with sobbing eyes.
Fayaz Khan, a retired school teacher said that he was busy shopping along with his family at Qissa Khwani bazaar Peshawar last night when a teenage beggar with a black color in hand rushed towards him, asking for money or otherwise his clothes would be made dirty.
“In order to save my clothes, I immediately offered him Rs50, which was refused. On several requests, the beggar accepted Rs. 100 and started running towards other shoppers by using the same technique that was intolerable in a civilized society,” Fayaz said.
The unchecked beggars in Peshawar had made it difficult for people to complete shopping for their children ahead of the end of winter vacations. He urged the government to take instant action against beggars in the city so that people could do their shopping easily.
Asif Yousafzai, Advocate Supreme Court said that beggary has been declared illegal under West Pakistan Loitering Ordinance 1958, adding that unfortunately this law had not been fully implemented in KP, resulting in a substantial increase in the number of beggars, especially children and women at Peshawar.
“In Pakistan, begging is unlawful under the said Ordinance 1958, under which beggars or parents of children begging can be jailed for up to three years,” he said, adding the central and provincial laws such as Control of Narcotics Substance Act 1997, West Pakistan Vagrancy Ordinance 1959, Pakistan Employment of Children Act 1991, KP Child Protection and Welfare Act (KPCPWA) 2010 and KP Orphanage Supervision and Control Act 1976 had been promulgated to check drug addiction and streets begging but the dream of begging free KP was yet to be materialized.
KPCPWA was enacted in 2010 to protect the rights of women and children, but it has not been fully implemented fully, resulting in an increase in the number of beggars.
The senior lawyer said the role of the Child Welfare Commission (CWC) was very important to protect child beggars, urging the KP Government to impose a ban on child beggars on the pattern of Sindh province and direct the social welfare department to pick child beggars from markets, roads, traffic signals, streets and rehabilitate them at their welfare centers.
Habib Afridi, Director Social Welfare Department said that begging was a social problem mostly caused by poverty, unemployment, drug addiction, and social marginalization.
He said that an anti-beggary campaign has been started for rehabilitation of beggars, and special children and the empowerment of poor women in the province.
Syed Qasim Ali Shah, KP minister for social welfare said the government was taking steps to eliminate the scourge of begging from society and make beggars a productive part of the community.
He said that about Rs. 320 million are allocated for the rehabilitation of 2,000 beggars and drug addicts under Phase III of the Drugs and Beggars Free Peshawar initiative.
The government has launched special projects to integrate beggars into society as productive members and mentioned that an agreement has been signed with TEVTA to help achieve this key objective.
The needy children involved in beggary would be sent to Zamung Kor (own house), adding the action plan against beggary is estimated to cost Rs. 23 million per year.
The minister said that authorities were directed to propose necessary amendments in the legal framework to tighten punishments against professional beggars.
The minister said it has been decided to establish a special task force to ensure speedy implementation of an action plan against beggary and drug addiction in the provincial capital and private sector institutions/organizations with expertise in the relevant field were being engaged for speedy rehabilitation of child beggars and drug addicts.
The KP government has planned to arrange technical and vocational courses for beggars on the pattern of rehabilitated drug addicts to make them useful citizens of society, he concluded.
