New eligibility criteria for selection of new BISP beneficiaries approved

ISLAMABAD: The Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) Board on Monday approved the new eligibility criteria for selection of new beneficiaries after the National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) 2017-18.

The meeting of BISP board was held here at BISP secretariat in chair of Minister of State and Chairperson BISP, MNA Marvi Memon, said a press release.

The new criteria will include the ever married women above 18 years of age, never married women above 40 years and transgenders above 18 years with possession of CNIC. A board committee was constituted to finalize the exit strategy for the existing beneficiaries who would not meet the beneficiary criteria after NSER 2017-18.

The board members participated in the meeting includes Dr. Ali Cheema, Dr. Ishrat Hussain, Qazi Azmat Isa, Dr. Sania Nishtar, Dr. Abdul Bari Khan, Additional Secretary Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination, Senior Joint Secretary Finance Division, Joint Secretary EAD and Secretary BISP, Omar Hamid Kha.

During her welcome note, the chairperson BISP gave guidelines on the agenda items and shared various achievements of the organization. She also paid tribute to the exiting board members, Dr Zeba Sattar and Mr Yawar Irfan.

The secretary BISP appreciated the presence of such high profile members in the newly constituted BISP board which indicated the promising future of BISP, country’s premier social safety net organization.

The main agenda items of the meeting included ratification of the minutes of 28th BISP board meeting, issues pertaining to NSER 2017-18, new eligibility criteria, exiting policy of existing beneficiaries, BISP graduation model, establishment of BISP endowment fund, BISP financial regulations and adhoc relief Allowance-2017.

The committee is to finalize the strategy in five days. The board decided that the BISP Graduation Model (BGM) will be implemented through a pilot project and will include business incubation & asset transfer for self employment and direct cash for start up business. Scaling up of the BGM would be subject to success of the pilot project. Approval was also granted to creation of BISP Endowment Fund (BEF) through an endowment agreement between BISP & BEF.

BISP Financial Regulations-2017 were also approved by the Board under Section 23 of BISP Act which authorizes the Board to make regulations in order to carry out the purposes of this Act. The Board also accorded approval for grant of Adhoc Relief Allowance 2017 to BISP employees as by the federal government.

BISP Board approved to adopt revised assistance package for families of BISP employees who die in service, with effect from 9th February, 2015. In light of the constitution of new BISP Board, the sub-committees of the Board were reconstituted with new composition as per Section 13 Clause (1) of BISP Regulations, 2015.