HATS off to singer-cum-actor Hadiqa Kiyani for launching a successful campaign to provide shelter to the flood affected people in Balochistan. Under her charity drive known as Vaseela-e-Raah, she started the project a few months back and now announced completion of one hundred houses for affected families in Tamboo tehsil of Naseerabad district of the province. Hadiqa has a goal of constructing two hundred houses as well as a primary school, maternity centre and a grocery store.
Hadiqa has set a glorious example of doing something concrete for people affected by devastating floods and rains and that too in the far-flung and backward areas of the country. No doubt, it is the responsibility of the provincial and the federal governments to provide assistance for rebuilding of houses and other infrastructure to help the affected people resume their routine life but the Government alone was not expected to complete the task at the required pace in view of the financial and economic crisis facing the country. The Government had also launched an international appeal and, in fact, some bilateral and multilateral donors announced their contributions but either these pledges have not materialized fully or they are taking time due to various visible and invisible hazards. Hadiqa has done well by fulfilling needs of shelter of a community in a disadvantaged area of Balochistan, showing way for other charity and social welfare organizations to come forward to augment efforts of the Government in this regard. The very fact that she was able to raise necessary funds for the purpose is also confirmation of the widely-held perception that people of Pakistan are always ready to extend material assistance to people in distress. There are billionaires as well as local and multinational companies operating in the country, which can do a lot by initiating similar projects to help address the woes of the flood affected people.
