Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in Lahore on Saturday to lay the foundation stone for a shelter project in the city — the first of five in Lahore.

These will be followed by shelters in other cities across the country, the premier shared on Twitter.

"We are committed to building a social net for our poor citizens so everyone has a shelter over his/her head and access to health and education."

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar accompanied the premier at the launching ceremony for the shelter house.

"Today, we are taking the first step for the welfare of the people," said PM Khan while speaking to the guests and media at the event.

The premier added that now that the country has come out of the crisis of repayment of loans, all efforts will be put in for initiating public-welfare projects.

He praised CM Buzdar for his work so far in the province. "I told him [CM Buzdar] once and he himself went and saw all the sites [for the shelter] and selected them. Work on the building has also started."

"Usman Buzdar was chosen as the Chief Minister of Punjab so that the marginalised areas of southern Punjab could be brought at par with the developed areas."

PM Khan announced that in seven to ten days, the government would launch its project for the alleviation of poverty, which would be "unlike any other in Pakistan".

He added that the package would be a coordinated effort of all organisations working towards the alleviation of poverty under one umbrella.

"We have said that we will present our full performance to the country in 100 days [since forming government]; the most important part of that is this poverty alleviation package."

PM Khan lays foundation stone of shelter house in Lahore on Saturday. ─ DawnNewsTV

According to Radio Pakistan, the shelter building will be based upon a "state of the art" design with simplicity in order to improve its utility, besides availability of separate facilities to ensure best usage of the place.

It will also include construction of multi-purpose halls for imparting training and holding of public awareness programmes on vital social objectives.