Rs 93 billion disbursed under BISP to beneficiaries, moot told

A seminar on 'Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) making difference in the lives of the people' was told that so far Rs 93 billion had been disbursed under the BISP to the beneficiaries since its inception. It was further told that the poverty survey in FATA had been delayed for security reasons, was now going on in Bajaur and Kuram Agencies, while in Mohmand Agency it would be started from the next week.
Federal Minister and Chairperson BISP, Farzana Raja, Rachid Bin Masood, Country Director the World Bank, Iftikhar Malik, Senior Social Protection Specialist, the World Bank, and Ahsan Ali, Director General Operation from BISP were among the participants of the seminar, which held here on Tuesday.
Farzana Raja told the audience that the families with any disable person across Pakistan would have a special exemption in poverty scorecard so that they may be able to enroll themselves with BISP. "There are 44 countries in the world that are running the programme based on social safety net on the same pattern like BISP, but ours is exceptional in the sense that most of the countries around the globe have approached our foreign office requesting to replicate theirs' with our programme," she added.
She said that BISP was working for national interest irrespective of the political affiliation. "There are two wars currently going on in the country ie, war on terror and war on poverty. Poverty is a vicious circle, which the BISP intends to eliminate in Pakistan," Farzana Raja explained.
She said, "The government is currently paying a huge amount, as subsidies to the different sectors, but the end consumers are not getting the benefit of the subsidies. So, in spite of spending this amount on subsidies, the money could be used for the benefit of the poor segment of society by further strengthening the social safety net".
"The foreign donors have always been appreciating the transparency of the programme. USAID, DFID, the government of China, the World Bank and ADB have always been interested in funding the program," the chairperson emphasised.
According to her, the civil society, media, academia and other segments of society should lend their support and co-operation to the BISP in its effort to serve the vulnerable and marginalized men, women, and children of the country. "The programme is practical manifestation of the slogan 'Roti, Kapra our Makaan, Ilm, Roshni, Sab Ko Kaam' of Pakistan People's Party," she added.
Farzana Raja said that BISP intends to share its data gathered by poverty survey with other provinces and institutions so that a cohesive strategy in the social sector could be evolved. She said that BISP was also providing assistance to provinces pertaining to Waseela-e-Taleem.
Iftikhar Malik said that as per World Bank a third party validation of nation-wide poverty survey and transparent disbursement of monthly cash grants among millions of beneficiary families had already been made. He said that results of the third party validations were extremely encouraging.
While presenting the critical analysis of the BISP programme, Malik said that according to a recent analysis of USAID, 98.6 percent of the BISP beneficiaries were receiving their monthly cash of Rs 1000. Rachid Bin Masood said that the Poverty Scorecard Survey conducted by BISP was a unique exercise of its kind in South Asia and one of the best in the world. He said that the data collected by the survey would be beneficial for various other projects in social and financial sectors.
He said that BISP had introduced modern delivery mechanisms ie Mobile Phone banking and Smart Cards to ensure transparent and effective disbursement of financial assistance among the beneficiary families. "Various measures taken by BISP are proving as a catalyst for socio-economic change as well as economic and socio-political empowerment of women. The World Bank would keep supporting BISP in the future as well for its efforts regarding poverty alleviation from the country on long term basis," the Country Director added.