Prime Minister Imran Khan while inaugurating the expansion of ‘Ehsaas Koi Bhooka Na Soye’ initiative to Gujranwala, Lahore and Multan on Friday directed the authorities concerned not to compromise on quality of food served to the needy people.

The prime minister inaugurated four food trucks that will serve free cooked meal to daily-wage earners across the cities. With addition of four trucks under the expansion plan, the total number of such vehicles will be increased to 16.

The Ehsaas has been running 12 trucks in 5 cities including Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Lahore, Faisalabad and Peshawar and the programme is being expanded to seven cities including Gujranwala, Lahore and Multan.

Each truck feeds 1,000-1,500 people daily on specified service points, twice a day and seven days a week.

Special Assistant to PM on Social Welfare Senator Dr Sania Nishtar and Managing Director Pakistan Baitul Mal Malik Zaheer Abbas Khokhar briefed the prime minister on the expansion plan of the free food service. SAPM Dr Shahbaz Gill and Senator Faisal Javed were also present on the occassion.

During the briefing, the premier questioned as whether there was any mechanism for quality audit. In response, Nishtar said they had received some complaints from Peshawar regarding the quality of food which were addressed later.

To this, the prime minister repeatedly directed for no compromise on quality of food, both at trucks as well as Panagahs, because the poor who felt contented only for getting free food, would never complain about its quality.

While also reiterating his government’s commitment to serve the poor without hurting his dignity, the prime minister said such initiatives were the reflection of State of Madina which had taken the responsibility of their poor people.

The prime minister was told that by October, the “Ehsaas Koi Bhooka Na Soye” operations would be expanded to all four provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan with the overall fleet of 40 food trucks in 29 cities that would feed 40,000 people every day and 1.46 million people annually.

To date, 831,625 meals have been served across Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Islamabad.

The prime minister officially launched the initiative on March 10 to serve free meals to deserving populations in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Under the Ehsaas umbrella, this programme runs through a public private partnership whereby Pakistan Baitul Mal was responsible for the operations of the food trucks and Saylani Welfare International Trust was responsible for provision of meals.