Notices should be sent to those expelled from BISP, Standing Committee

ISLAMABAD: The Parliamentary Committee has expressed concern over the exclusion of 8 lakh persons from the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) and directed the concerned authorities to give reasons for the transparent action.
At a meeting of the Senate's Functional Committee on Backward Areas, it directed the BISP to provide the names of government employees who have been receiving these benefits, directly or indirectly, for the past several years.

The meeting in Parliament House was chaired by Senator Usman Khan Kakar.

On the occasion, Dr Sania Nishtar, Assistant Prime Minister and BISP Chairperson informed the Committee that under the umbrella of Emotion program, many welfare programs like National Socio-economic Registry, unconditional money transfer, conditional money transfer, nutrition program and B.I. ISP graduating programs are underway.

During the meeting, the committee was told that the decision was taken after profiling them, in which they failed to meet the required standards.

The committee was also told that a national survey would be conducted soon in which the poverty scorecard method would be implemented to identify the poor, while vacant posts at BISP offices across the country would be completed soon. Persons will be deployed.

At the briefing, the Parliamentary Committee was of the view that the BISP should focus on raising beneficiaries and support small businesses in this regard.

At the same time, the BISP was directed to focus on the backward areas and increase the help of the people in those areas, rather than allocating funds to those who benefit.

The committee meeting also directed the students from backward areas to give priority to scholarships and demanded the BISP to take up the issue of fake callers and to investigate and prosecute those involved. The matter has been referred to the Federal Investigation Agency.

Senator Usman Khan Kakar said he believed there had been some mistakes or omissions in the enrollment of individuals in the BISP program in the past, but no one should be removed from the list in such a way that he would not have the opportunity to do his own cleaning.

"Some people have done Hajj, but I personally know people who help the poor for Hajj and their husbands can travel abroad to preach," she said.

The senator said that the BISP told the committee that it had issued notarial notices to several employees who were receiving the award, adding that I recommend that notices be issued to all of them as well. That was excluded from the program