ISLAMABAD: After criticism against Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) for hiring over a couple of dozen advisers and coordinators on over Rs2 million monthly salary, its chairman Abrarul Haq on Tuesday claimed that all the appointments were made in the best interest of the organisation and they were contributing more compared to their remunerations.

Mr Haq, who is a Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) stalwart and also a prominent singer, alleged that a malicious campaign has been launched against him after he resisted malpractices in the organisation.

“I want to bring reforms in the organisation to improve its performance. Though I am not here to do policing, I will not give NRO to anyone,” he said while talking to Dawn.

The PRCS has been facing allegations of nepotism and malpractices. An official of the organisation, requesting not to be quoted, said over two dozen advisers and coordinators had been appointed in the organisation.

“Unfortunately, a number of them are either close to Mr Haq or are PTI workers. They have been drawing heavy salaries and using vehicles of the organisation. A PRCS branch in Punjab wrote a letter to the head office highlighting irregularities and violation of rules. It was alleged that cash assistance was being paid to people by the honorary district coordinator who was appointed by Mr Haq,” he said.

The official said a man who deals with personal events of Mr Haq was appointed in the PRCS to deal with social media. He alleged that it created conflict of interests as the chairman has been running Sahara Trust, which collects donations, and is also heading the PRCS which also deals with donations.

However, Abrarul Haq told Dawn that when he was at the peak of his carrier, he decided to establish Sahara Trust and spent his lifetime savings on it. He said he constructed 4,000 shelter houses for people affected by earthquakes and floods and did a number of other social works.

“It was because of charity work and efforts to address issues of the poor that Prime Minister Imran Khan decided that a person like me should be considered for being head of the PRCS. Now I want to do something for Pakistan and when I came here I observed that there were a number of issues and a number of officials were involved in malpractices. However, at the same time, there are a number of competent employees who have been contributing for the progress of the organisation,” he said.

Mr Haq said he was astonished to see that some officials, who were getting Rs18,000 per month salary, were giving cash assistance of Rs48,000 each to different people.

“I decided that a number of stakeholders, including the district administration, will be involved in the process of giving cash assistance to needy people but some officials did not like it and started feeding baseless stories to the media,” he said.

When asked if he had appointed advisers and coordinators, the PRCS chief said he had hired competent persons and it was a team work as the organisation was doing fine. He said the advisers were getting around Rs1 million per month but contributing more than what they were getting as remunerations.

“Unfortunately, we lacked resource mobilisation department due to which I appointed an adviser. Within two months, he arranged donations of Rs130 million. Moreover, I brought back 2,000 prisoners from Saudi Arabia and 29 from Bangladesh. We have been working to get the Covid-19 vaccine and will also play our role in administering it,” he said.

Mr Haq said the PRCS will start a course to train citizens to provide first aid to people in an emergency. He said it will be just like National Cadet Course (NCC) which was once a regular feature in colleges.

“A number of health professionals have been associated with us and they have offered free services,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2021