Zubair Qureshi
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation & Social Protection Senator Dr Sania Nishtar has clarified the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) has not been renamed and the government had no plan to rename it.
During a Question Hour in the Upper House on Thursday, Dr Sania Nishtar said BISP was established under the BISP Act and it still exists today with its name unchanged.
Only the photographs of public figures have been removed from the program by order of the court, she added.
The SAPM also said that a new program has been launched to replace Benazir Debit Card which will provide assistance through biometrics.
She said that the scope of Waseela Education Program has been expanded from 50 to 150 districts to eradicate corruption, while its operational cost has been reduced from 8% to 3 per cent.
“We have also scrapped the outsourcing model because it used to award huge contracts to NGOs”, she said.
Earlier, presiding over a meeting at the social welfare department, Sania Nishtar said the Ehsaas beneficiaries would be trained on financial and digital literacy in order to enable them to get full benefits from the welfare programme.
