Zubair Qureshi
On Friday with the commencement of payments to category-3 beneficiaries, Dr Sania Nishtar, Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation covered herself in a Burqa and made an unannounced visit to the payment site at Noorpur Shahan in the outskirts of Bari Imam, Islamabad.
She toured the site to get a first-hand look at the precautionary measures and biometric disbursement services being offered to Ehsaas Emergency Cash beneficiaries that fall under categories-2 and 3.
Dressed up in Burqa, Dr. Nishtar showed up at the payment site as Ehsaas beneficiary seeking assistance to withdraw Ehsaas Emergency Cash stipend of Rs. 12, 000 through biometric system.
She sat in the queue and waited with beneficiaries who were sitting there to receive the Ehsaas Emergency Cash. She also interacted with recipients and volunteers on the ground and facilitated payments to several beneficiaries herself. She also issued directions to retailers and volunteers to make better use of preventive measures to ensure safety of people while ensuring transparent payments.
This friendly gesture of Dr Sania Nishtar not only helped her have a direct uninterrupted account of the things on ground it also won her all those poor men and women who were getting their Rs12,000 and prayed for her long life and success in life.
Ayesha bibi a beneficiary of the Ehsas cash assistance programme said she was able to feed her family with this amount as coronavirus had rendered her husband jobless and they were starving.
“Dr Sania and her team have dedicated themselves to provide this financial assistance to the poor people of Pakistan as envisioned by Prime Minister Imran Khan and they deserve all our support and prayers,” she said.
The Ehsaas Emergency Cash disbursements have been ongoing for the last one month and so far, Rs89.143 billion have been distributed cumulatively for categories-I and II among 7.307 million deserving families across the country.
The beneficiaries under the category-3 have been identified through district administrations. Alongside that, payments to category-2 beneficiaries who entered the program through 8171 SMS service are also underway.
During the visit, Dr. Nishtar was pleased to see how retailers, district administration, security agencies and volunteers provide a welcoming environment for deserving beneficiaries, including their methods for guiding beneficiaries through the new system of finger-print security.
“This visit in disguise was intended to assess the campsite arrangements in terms of quality of services, transparency and accuracy in payment system and Covid-19 preventive measures,” said she while talking to media on the occasion.
