Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation & Social Safety and Chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Shazia Marri on Wednesday said Imran Khan was a self-centered person who only wanted create anarchy in the country. Addressing a news conference here, she said the incumbent government wanted all the political parties to join hands to bring the country out of the economic crisis created by the previous government.
She said BISP, a programme initiated by former president Asif Ali Zardari in 2008, under the vision of former Prime Minister Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, had acclaimed recognition at an international level. The programmes launched without any vision did not achieve success, she added. The minister said the former chairperson of the programme Sania Nishtar just to please her leader, removed over 0.8 million beneficiaries from the BISP without giving them a right to appeal. She said for the ease of beneficiary women of BISP, it had been decided to adopt a new mechanism of payment to them. The beneficiaries now would not have to stand in long ques for their financial assistance, she added.
She said after a number of meetings with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and some other private banks, it had been decided that the beneficiaries would have now their own bank accounts in which they would receive their payments directly. Initially the system would be launched under pilot project however, if it attain success it would expanded to the whole country.
The minister said the method of payment would also allow beneficiaries to save some of their amount in the banks which would not only help in financial inclusion of women but also increase their financial literacy. The already registered beneficiaries would not have to get involved in banking process, their transfer to bank accounts would be the responsibility of BISP.
Shazia Marri said the country was currently facing multiple challenges and programmes like BISP prove to be beneficial for the vulnerable segments of society affected by these challenges.
Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation & Social Safety and Chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Shazia Marri said the introduction of BISP led to the increase in documentation of population because national identity card was mandatory requirement for registration as beneficiary similarly B-form was required for registration of BISP educational programme ‘Benazir Taleemi Wazaif’.
Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation & Social Safety and Chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Shazia Marri said an amount of more than Rs 70 billion was distributed among the flood victims under the directives of Prime Minister Shabaz Sharif. Despite all the challenges the country had been facing, the BISP during the floods remained active on ground. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif had on some occasions himself inspected the disbursement of relief items during the floods, she added. She said Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had turned global attention towards the affects of climate change Pakistan had been facing. Bilawal Bhutto raised the issue of losses caused by floods in the country on every forum, she added.
To a question about PPP’s winning large number of seats in local bodies polls, Shazia Marri replied that the public had given mandate to PPP for the development works carried out by its provincial government in the megalopolis. She said the credit for PPP’s victory also went to former administrator Murtaza Wahab.
Responding to another query, she said that about 25 mobile units of BISP would be established in Balochistan for registration of beneficiaries.
