islamabad - As the chilly winter night forced people to shut down businesses and snuggle into their beds, Prime Minister Imran Khan ventured out in the cold onto one of Rawalpindi city’s busiest places - Fawara Chowk to visit the DHQ hospital and the nearby shelter home set up in a car park.

The late night visit materialised as the city’s busiest shopping area was closed with little traffic on otherwise a very congested road.

Imran Khan’s presence came as a surprise to the patients, their family members and above all the hospital staff who were not expecting any high-profile visitor at this hour. The Prime Minister, along with Minister for Health Amir Kiani, Special Assistant to PM on Media Iftikhar Durrani and Senator Faisal Javed visited various wards of the hospital.

He met with the patients and enquired about the quality of treatment and also about the availability of medicines and other facilities. He keenly examined the state of cleanliness and asked about the attitude of doctors and staff.

 The patients apprised him of some issues and the PM directed to ensure provision of necessary facilities at the earliest. He said that the doctors and the staff must ensure provision of quality treatment to everyone without any discrimination.

Imran Khan also visited paediatrics and family unit of the Holy Family Hospital and directed up-gradation of the existing facilities. He asked the health minister to submit a detailed report on Holy Family Hospital by Tuesday evening.

Prime Minister later visited the shelter home established for the homeless at Fawara Chowk, Rawalpindi that can house over 150 people. Accompanied with Minister of Health Aamir Kiani, the Prime Minister went around various sections of the Shelter Home, temporarily setup at the basement of the multi-story car park, adjacent to the District Hospital Rawalpindi.

The Prime Minister shook hands with people, enquired about their well being and asked whether they were facing any problem at the ‘panahgah’.

Some of the homeless said they were doing odd jobs, some working as labourers, while others had neither a job, nor a place to live and were happy to have got a warm bed to sleep and food.

Imran Khan said his government was working hard to ease the life of the common man and hoped that they would soon be able to get jobs and earn respectable living.

The Prime Minister was shown the mosque, sleeping areas, the place where they are served meals and informed about the medical facilities available for them. He eulogised the facilities being extended to the homeless and directed that more shelter homes be set up at different localities to house such people who have no place to live in the cold weather.

The Prime Minister lastly paid a surprise visit to another shelter home at Tarlai, in Islamabad. A number of such shelter homes are being established on the directive of the Prime Minister to provide a living place for homeless people.