Staff Reporter
Shelter Homes of the federal capital are providing homelike dine and sleep environment to over 3500 destitute and homeless in harsh winter’s condition.
The facilities offer over 500 homeless to stay at night in a cozy atmosphere during cold weather and food centers (Langar Khanas) were serving nutritious hygienic meal daily to more than 3,000 poor and needy,showed the official data issued here on Tuesday.
“‘Panahgahs’ are fully operational at five main locations of the Federal Capital including Bara Kahu, Mandi Mor, Peshawar Mor, Tarlai and Tarnol,” Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Shelter Homes Naseem ur Rehman told APP.
He said there were around 93 dedicated places and a large number of Langar Khanas (food centers) across the country that had served around 150,000 poor people to this day by providing healthy food and night stay in hygienic settings.
Naseem said Rs 300 was being spent on each dweller every day, helping the poor people, especially migrant workers to save Rs 6,000 per month that obviously provided him an opportunity to directly spend the hard earned money on his family welfare.
“It actually manifests Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision of transforming the country into Madina-like state where all the citizens irrespective of their caste, religion, race and social status were treated equally,” he added.
He said once there was starvation, and helpless people were forced to sleep on pavements and in public parks. “Now I can say, in the long run, this Panagah project will prove a remarkable initiative to alleviate poverty in an effective manner,” he maintained.
Explaining the policy to ensure sustainability of the programme, Naseem said it was providing an organized and strategic approach to the ‘giving’. It also makes the ‘giving’ a dignified process by keeping in mind respect and dignity of the receiver, he added.
“This is the first time in the history of Pakistan that a programme has come up which is trying to tap into the people’s goodwill as well as the existing resources, and through this process, a major overlapping, wastage and duplications have been reduced,” the prime minister’s focal person noted.
The focal person said strict enforcement of precautionary measures such as mask-wearing, hand sanitization and social distancing, was being made sure within the premises of all the shelter homes to transform them into safe and secure places in the wake of second wave of pandemic.
