Zubair Qureshi
Following Prime Minister Imran Khan’s announcement to raise the six-monthly stipend amount of Kafaalat from Rs 12,000 to Rs 14,000 Ehsaas Kafaalat payments of January to June 2022 have already commenced and currently, a tranche of Rs 71 billion is being disbursed in all Tehsils of the country to benefit millions of poorest women.
In order to review disbursement operations under Kafaalat, Senator Dr. Sania Nishtar, Special Assistant to Prime Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Security Monday held a number of meetings with the Habib Bank Limited (HBL) management, Chief Secretaries of the provinces and IGPs of Police.
Secretary Ismat Tahira and all Director Generals of Ehsaas were also present in the meeting together with the Focal Persons of provinces. The pace of payments and issues emerging from the field were discussed in detail. The meeting also discussed the zero-tolerance policy for those involved in illegal deductions.
“Beneficiaries of the Kafaalat programme are the disadvantaged women with meagre or no means of income generation. We are fully striving to ensure that Kafaalat payments are made in the field with utmost ease and transparency”, said Dr. Sania. “We are taking stringent measures to ensure that full amount of Rs. 14,000 goes in hands of beneficiaries and fraudsters are dealt with zero tolerance. All are officers and teams are constantly in the field to monitor payments”, she further added.
