Currently, the centre, which is located in a large hall provided by the local parish, is treating 20 patients, including four Muslims.
Bhatti told AsiaNews that he had been thinking about setting up a place to rehabilitate drug addicts for a long time, but took the plunged only after he “lost his two brothers-in-law, Waris Masih and Arif Masih, to heroin.”
Following their death he took in Waris’ two daughters and Arif’s three children.
“I prayed to God, asking him for the courage and strength to do something for drug addicts and save their lives,” he said. “My prayers were heard.”
The centre is open to everyone, irrespective of religion. This is important to Bhatti. “This is a way of bearing witness to Christ among the faithful of other religions,” he said.
Muhammad Azam, one of the four Muslim patients, said that he had been an addict for a long time. His family had taken him to a rehabilitation institute in Islamabad but he had little success there. At Bhatti’s centre he is feeling much better and expects that he will “soon be a normal person.”
Muhammad Afzal, a Muslim father of five, said he lost his job as a truck driver because of drug problems. His family got him into the centre.
Women too are accepted but their identity is withheld to shield them from undesirable attention.
Bhatti’s dream is to open a real hospital, but he does not have enough funds to turn it into reality. None the less, “I am hopeful Jesus will help me,” he said, “and that some day my dream will come true.”
In the meantime one of his rewards so far has been the appreciation he has received from prominent Catholics, Protestants and Muslims.
According to figures published in the national media, Pakistan has about 684,000 drug addicts with heroin topping the list as the drug of choice, coming essentially from Afghanistan, home to vast poppy fields.
Pakistan, Iran and Central Asia are also the crossroads of the illicit drug trade that reaches Western markets.
Drug dealing in Pakistan is punished with sentences of up to 14 years in prison. For some offences the death penalty is applied.