Cynically playing on people's best feelings.

The sight of children with their poker faces lost in a trackless jungle of pain, women with reptile eyes and unkempt hair, and disabled and disadvantaged old people begging throughout the day and the night across Pakistan's streets is a grim and constant reminder of the millions who live in abject poverty.

Begging is one of the most ancient pandemics in the world. Pakistan is fraught with beggars of all shapes and ages. From a child barely able to talk and walk to a young educated adult to an old disabled person, and from a needy to an expert to an appointed professional, many people are seen to be buried in the curse of begging. Beggars are found on every street, main road, roundabout, pavement, and in front of mosques and shrines, and main roads asking for money. In some cases, beggary is tolerated due to religious reasons. People give alms to beggars to earn 'sawab' but they forget that the beggars are professionals who earn their living by begging.

In our part of the world, the beggary mafia has turned into a form of 'organized crime'. The organizers have criminal intentions to maximize profit for themselves by forcing people, mostly children, to beg. There is a hand supporting every palm soliciting alms. Children are kidnapped, transformed and traded between different begging gangs. The gang leaders exploit people by preying on their economic and financial vulnerabilities.

The social evil of beggary is destabilising and demoralising our nation and giving birth to uncertainty and insecurity. While poverty is real, begging is quite often carried out in organized plans and gangs. Groups and gangs use advanced technologies such as smartphones, emails, and modern transportation systems to plan and implement their mafia goals. For example, smartphones are used not only to beg, but also to trace the location of the beggar, to inform beggars about law enforcement activities and warning them when 'anti-begging squads' are near. Motorbikes are used to help the member beggars disappear from the signs of danger.

The beggar children are mostly those who were first abducted by the mafia, and then given a hideous appearance or disability. The street beggars do not keep the money for themselves. For every street, every intersection, every shrine, every public park, there exists a mafia that employs children and sometimes adults to work for them. There is a huge influx of the institutionalised beggar mafia to our land and it is the responsibility of...