By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan expanded free food program named Ehsaas ‘Koi Bhooka Na Soye’ to three more cities, including Multan, Gujranwala and Lahore on Friday.
At the inauguration, the premier emphasised that the quality of the food should never be compromised.
“When you provide for a poor person, they never complain, and because of the lack of complaints, the quality often goes down”, PM Imran said, citing an example of Shaukat Khanam hospital.
The PM was informed that the founder of Saylani Welfare Trust, Maulana Bashir Farooqi had been contacted and had subsequently spoken to his workers about improving food quality.
He was also told that the issues in Peshawar regarding the quality of the food had been resolved. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar and Managing Director Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal Malik Zaheer Abbas Khokhar briefed PM Imran on the expansion plan of the free food service in the three districts.He was told about the routes the programme’s trucks take as well as who they reach.
By October 2021, there will be 40 trucks working for the initiative. The trucks will be in 29 cities across the country and feed up to 40,000 people. Free cooked meals are distributed among the needy, particularly labourers, daily-wage earners, women and children throught the programme.
PM Imran launched the “Koi Bhooka Na Soye” programme under the umbrella of the Ehsaas poverty alleviation initiative. The programme started in the federal capital before soon expanding to other cities of the country. “We can only emerge among the comity of developed nations if we take steps for the welfare of the underprivileged,” the premier stated during an address in April, when the programme was further expanded.
