Sindh given 10pc extra share under Ehsaas Emergency Cash Progrmme amid COVID-19 pandemic: Ali Muhammd

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan Thursday said the Sindh province had been given 10 percent extra share against its population ratio, under the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic after receiving excessive applications due to complete lockdown there.

“As per the population ratio, Sindh’s share was around 20 percent, but the federal government under the Ehsaas programme gave over 31 percent,” he said during the question-hour session of the National Assembly.

Under the programme, he said around Rs. 160 million had so far been disbursed among the people affected due to economic slowdown caused by the virus.

An amount of Rs. 12,000 each needy family had been given across the country.

He said previous government had been doing mere lip servicing to give province their due share, but the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government had practically done, which reflected from the increased share of Sindh in the cash assistance programme and a recently constitutional amendment passed by the Senate to create 13 additional seats in Balochistan Assembly.

Replying to a question, the minister said at present there was no evidence to suggest that poverty had increased in the country.

“Therefore, it cannot be confirmed if poverty has increased during the present regime.”

He said latest national level statistics were essential to determine the current poverty level as after 2016, no credible national level estimates in this regard were available.

“Hence, it is not possible to report that the poverty has increased. However, previous trends with respect to poverty estimates show a significant decrease in the national poverty ratio.”

Ali Muhammad said the National Poverty Report 2015-16 of National Commission of Pakistan indicated a decrease in the national poverty level over the year.

“The report states that poverty in Pakistan has declined from 57.9pc in 1998 to 24.3pc in 2015.”

According to the report, prevalence of multidimensional poverty is 38.4 percent (including education, health and living standards).

“There are stark regional disparities in the prevalence of poverty. Rural multidimensional poverty headcount is as high as 55pc in contrast to urban areas where only 9pc of urban population is multi-dimensionally poor.”

In order to control the increasing ratio of poverty, he said, the present government had initiated the country’s largest poverty alleviation programme “Ehsaas”.

He said the programme had as many as 134 initiatives which were meant for the extreme poor, orphans widows, the homeless, the disabled, those who risked medical impoverishment, jobless, poor farmers, labourers, sick and undernourished, students from low-income backgrounds and poor women and elderly citizens.

“The plan is also about lifting lagging areas where poverty is higher.”