ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Imran Khan today will announce the expansion of the Ehsaas Koi Bhooka Na Soye (EKBNS) programme to three major cities of Punjab and KP before the month of Ramazan. The programme will serve free meals to labourers, daily wage earners and piece rate workers who cannot access the Ehsaas Panagahs and Ehsaas Langars. Through a virtual groundbreaking ceremony, the PM will be joined by the Chief Ministers of KP, and Punjab together with Parliamentarians to inaugurate the EKBNS free food service through multiple truck kitchens in Peshawar, Lahore and Faisalabad. Each truck will feed 1500-2000 people daily on specified service points. The meals will be cooked, stored and served from a truck kitchen. On March 10, 2021, the EKBNS was officially launched by the PM to serve free meals to deserving populations in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. In the initial phase, 37,827 meals have been served so far across the twin cities. Centred on lessons from this initial phase, the innovative EKBNS programme is now being upscaled to three other cities.

The EKBNS is the PM’s vision for the year 2021. Earlier this year, the PM had declared his resolve for the year 2021 that EKBNS would be introduced to make sure that no one goes to bed hungry. “The distribution of free meals will help the labour class to save their hard-earned earnings for their families. Later this year, the programme will be upscaled phase-wise to other parts of the country,” stated Dr. Sania Nishtar while speaking to press with regard to the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the multi-city rollout.