CHAKWAL: Chakwal police and local philanthropists distributed rations among daily-wage workers who have been rendered jobless in the wake of the lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The police distributed rations among 300 families on Monday, each of which contained flour, ghee, sugar, tea, rice, three kinds of pulses and spices.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Headquarters Amjad Bhatti toldDawneach bag has enough food to last two weeks for the average family of four to five people.

He said 27 families were selected from the jurisdictions of each police stations in the district, and their details were verified before they were provided the rations.

Mr Bhatti said the police bought the food from money collected from employees’ salaries, adding: “These are testing times and the Chakwal police stands by its people.”

On Sunday evening, the Qazi Foundation distributed rations and a total of Rs2 million in cash among 400 families at theUP Churchin Chakwal city.

Qazi Mohammad Akbar, who supervised the activity on behalf of his brother Qazi Mohammad Ashraf who lives abroad, said: “During these hard times, we should not forget fellow citizens belonging to minority.”

He said the foundation collected information on all the Christian families, which came to 400, and decided to help them.

“Each family was given a bag of rations and Rs2,000, which would help them cope with the current situation,” he said.

He added: “Christians living in Chakwal are like our brothers. We will not let them feel deprived or alienated in the current situation.”

Irfan Gill, a Christian community leader, expressed gratitude to the foundation for helping the community.

In Parhal village, rations were distributed among the underprivileged by a village welfare organisation set up by well-off villagers.

PTI worker Ghafran Umar Kahout and another social worker Qazi Zahid Waqar and their friends also distributed rations among low-income families.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2020