At the Pir Wadhai Bus Terminal, a number of poor labourers are seen jumping off the rooftops of the buses variously parked inside. A majority of them seem to belong to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

These poor men are looking for work. They have no idea where they will spend the night and where their next day’s meals will come from. They huddle together on the footpath, keeping their eyes out. Zafar, 32, looks on, rather hopelessly. His last job at a construction site offered him a daily wage that was far too less for him to be able to make both ends meet.

Peshawar Morr is another big jaunt for the poor and the homeless. Also, they are to be spotted around Jinnah Super and other marketplace in Islamabad. The reason why these places attract them is because it is here that the city’s philanthropists typically set up free food stalls — or langar/dastarkhwan.

Mari Petroleum, a petroleum development company headquartered in Islamabad, is following a unique model. They run what they call a “mobile dastarkhwan” in which trucks/vans carry food items to the poor at specified locations every day. Breakfast and dinner are provided to more than 600 daily wage earners, street children, and people from shelter houses.

Since its launch in April this year, Mari Mobile Dastarkhwan is said to have served over 67,000 underprivileged people in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. According to Usman Aslam, who is part of Mari’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) segment, many local philanthropists reach out to them for contributions. “These [contributions] are accepted in addition to the sum Mari Petroleum has donated to the dastarkhwan,” he says.

The MD/CEO of Mari Petroleum, Faheem Haider, says that the MPCL has carried out numerous high-impact projects in areas of education, health, water supply, and infrastructure development for the uplift of local communities, especially in far-flung areas where they are without even the basic amenities. “With this one-year pilot project [Mobile Dastarkhwan], we want to play our part in dealing with poverty and malnutrition, especially amid the pandemic.”

The pilot project, Haider says, was launched with an initial contribution of Rs 39 million. “A total of 213,000 deserving Pakistanis are to be provided with quality cooked food annually, at carefully identified locations in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.”

Haider also speaks of scaling up the project in the future, and extending it to other parts of the country.

Presently, food stalls are set up at four different locations in Rawalpindi and Islamabad – Taramari Chowk, Kashmir Chowk, Khanna Pul, and near G-11. These locations were “selected after thorough research about the concentration of the labour community,” adds Usman Aslam. “We serve neatly cooked food in 300 bags in the morning and 300 [bags] in the evening. We’ve hired NGOs that are experts in the field of public welfare, to help us organise these stalls.

“Our food vans reach the venues, and the people form a line to collect the food. There are separate lines for men and women. After the entire food is dished out, everyone sits down at the mats and have their food in an orderly fashion.”

Zameer Haider, an Islamabad-based broadcast journalist, is of the view that charity must not be converted into a cult. “Charity is meant for the needy, and not to popularise the philanthropists. In the latter case, the philanthropists become cults, and wrongly so.”

The role of the government is also of great significance. A visit to Peshawar Morr shows an army of homeless men and women lining the footpaths. The government has set up a Langar Khana and a Panah Gah in the green belt along 9th Avenue. It is adjacent to the Metro Bus Stop, which makes it easier for labourers coming in via Faizabad/Rawalpindi to access. Here, food is served twice a day.

Bilal, one of the directors at the Langar Khana, says, “We have people coming in 24/7. We seek no help from volunteers or Tiger Force. Though, food is provided by Silani Trust.”

The News on Sunday (TNS) learns that the food which arrives in a pickup is cooked at Chandni Chowk, Rawalpindi, before it is delivered to the Langar Khana.

Close to the Langar Khana, in an area which is heavily populated by Afghans, there is an old Afghani restaurant named Khyber Restaurant. It boasts a long history of organising free food stalls for the needy (Afghan families).

The owner of the place says that no contributions are accepted from outsiders. “I consider it my duty,” he declares.

The food items distributed here include bread and curry or kebabs.

The writer teaches Development Support Communication at IIUI