Free shuttle service launched to facilitate dwellers for Panahgahs

ISLAMABAD: With mercury declines in the federal capital, the management of shelter homes has launched a free shuttle service to facilitate daily wage earners for reaching the ‘Panahgahs’, located in the city’s outskirts.

“The service has been successfully running for a fortnight and won the trust of poor worker and casual labour for provision of transport from their place of work to their lodging, connecting hotspots of work and ‘’Panahgahs’’ in an effective manner,” Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Shelter Homes Naseem ur Rehman told the media here.

He said in a welcome gesture, Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal had provided a wagon and bus to the ‘Panahgah’ management that helped pass on the much-needed relief to the daily wage earners, who were forced to access those facilities that were located in suburban areas of the capital city such as Tarlai and Bara Kahu due to rush at inner city establishments.

Naseem said daily wage earners were being picked daily in evening from most-convenient work places such as Sabzi Mandi and Peshawar Mor and dropped at Tarlai and Bara Kahu Panahgahs to ensure that none of the worker would sleep under open sky in such harsh weather. “It was done in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan who has been strong proponent of providing all-out facilities to the downtrodden segment of the society,” he remarked.

He said the initiative would also help facilitate the dwellers’ inter-Panahgahs movement to manage the spillover of daily wage earners at those facilities which are located on prime locations in the capital city.

Naseem termed the initiative as an out of the box solution to manage the growing influx of daily wagers, who flocked the inner city ‘Panahgahs’ due to increased economic activities in Islamabad. “Our Panahgahs in sector G-9 and Sabzi Mandi were getting overburdened so we decided to shift the influx to Tarlai and Barah Kahu shelter homes to make sure physical distancing among the dwellers at such crowded places.”

For safety of the dwellers, he said it was imperative to ensure social distancing at such crowded places in the wake of second wave of coronavirus pandemic. “Protection of downtrodden segment of the society is Prime Minister Imran Khan’s priority,” he said.

He said congregated places like ‘Panahgah’ were more vulnerable for the virus out-break that was why the management after taking cognizance of the looming threat took lead in the reinforcement of the SOPs.

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. He said hundreds of people visited Panahgahs daily and stayed there as state guest, and being provided food, shelter.