Naveed Aman Khan
PHILANTHROPY is a critical part of a democratic society. It is different from charity, which focuses on eliminating the suffering caused by social problems, while philanthropy focuses on the elimination of social problems. It supports projects and endeavours from which we all benefit, such as libraries, museums and scientific research and it also supports efforts that may be too unpopular or controversial to gain the widespread support of the general public or the government. Philanthropy is love for humankind. It is derived from the Greek words “philos,” which means loving and “anthropos,” which means humankind. A person who practices philanthropy is called a philanthropist . The purpose of philanthropy is to improve the wellbeing of humankind by preventing and solving social problems. Philanthropy is not the same as charity. Charity focuses on eliminating the suffering caused by social problems, while philanthropy focuses on eliminating social problems. Giving food to a person who is suffering from a famine is charity. The food helps the person for a short period of time, but the person will become hungry again in the future. Teaching the person how to grow food is philanthropy because it eliminates the social problem causing the person’s hunger. Philanthropy is important because it provides opportunities. Philanthropy supports projects and endeavours that may be too unpopular or controversial to gain the widespread support of the general public or the government. For this reason, philanthropy is very important part of a democratic society.
Muhammad Iqbal from Wadala Sindhuwan, Daska Sialkot a social worker and philanthropist based in London is a gold merchant. The most important aspect of his personality is his social work and love for humanity. Population of his home town Wadala has crossed number of thirty thousand. Wadala town has long been facing shortage of drinking water. The people like other towns and cities have also been drinking contaminated water here. He pulled up his socks and decided to set up two water filtration plants to meet the needs of his home town. Because of unhygienic and contaminated water percentage of liver Cancer, Kidney failure and Hepatitis was very high. But since the setting up of latest water filtration plants the percentage of these diseases has dropped. He affords complete expenditure of the bills, maintenance and salaries of the staff by his own. It is obligation of the government to meet the civic needs of the citizens of any country. Like third world countries people even don’t have clean drinking water in Pakistan. The town of Wadala also has long been facing shortage of drinking water. Keeping this misery in mind Iqbal decided to set up two water filtration plants to meet the need of the town. Additionally he donated filtered drinking water system to a Church located in the town. On the occasion of inaugural ceremony of the drinking water plant he requested his Christian school teacher to inaugurate. To him his Christian teacher is his mentor. He is not show-off at all that is why he requested his school teacher for the inaugural ceremony.
The media shy veteran philanthropist Muhammad Iqbal arranges around 10 metric ton food for the needy during the month of Ramadan every year. His prime concern has always been his hometown wadala. For the marriages of poor girls of the town he has allocated fund separately. He bears all the academic expenditure of needy students of the town. He runs his business of gold in different countries of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He is of the view that thousands of Pakistani expatriates want to do diverse businesses in Pakistan but bureaucrats and politicians create hurdles in the way of the business and trade. Taxes and custom duties are extremely high in Pakistan. Pakistan government policies for the promotion of business and trade are discouraging. That is why as compared to rest of the world Pakistani investors prefer to do business in other countries. He again categorically is of the view that there is no mechanism of government of Pakistan for the determination and declaration of market price of gold. Pakistan follows international market of gold and it’s pricing. He believes that Pakistan can get boost in it’s economy because of e-commerce and reforms in governmental procedures. According to him Pakistan government should win the hearts of the expatriates making soft procedures and policies for investment. Lucrative incentives should be given to the Pakistani investors. Multinational companies will watch and move to invest in Pakistan. Government of Pakistan need to get the policies relaxed. To get the wheel of economy moving permanently government of Pakistan will have to not only assure security of the life and property of the investors but the masses also. The government as well as the philanthropists should focus on the fundamental rights of the needy. Usually the well off people of other towns and cities don’t take care of the basic needs of the poor. Media shy Muhammad Iqbal is torch bearer of “live for humanity”. To finish darkness of poverty we need to lit and address the miseries of the deprived masses.
—The writer is book ambassador, columnist, political analyst and author of several books based in United Kingdom.
