During the press conference, she said that the people who have been expelled from the BISP database failed to meet eligibility criteria. The deserving people had been apportioned after a survey conducted 10 years ago. Unmerited people had been paid Rs 5000 since 2011, she said.
She said that the government took the decision for restricting government employees to get registered in the program. The steps taken were to provide financial aid to the needy people and a biometric mechanism with the collaboration of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) is designed to reach out to them.
Speaking about the criteria for those who do not qualify for BISP, Dr Nishtar said they included those who have traveled abroad once or more than once; have one or more vehicles registered against their names; and or those who incur an average monthly bill of telephone more than Rs 1,000. "Employees of the government, Railways, Post Office and BISP and their spouses do not qualify for BISP either," she added.
Those who have applied for passports via executive centre or whose spouses have applied for passports via executive centre and have three or more family members who have applied for a Computerized National Identity Card with an executive fee also do not qualify for the program. A new 'Kifalat' program will be introduced under BISP for poor women, she further said.
Dr Nishtar said, "We are shifting to a cent per cent digital system as the previous card system expired on December 15. Women could now use biometric ATM and the details of cash withdrawals will be available on our screens. We will encourage women for self-sufficiency, whereas the stipend is linked with the inflation rate."
While detailing the Ehsaas undergraduate program, the special assistant announced the provision of educational scholarships to 50,000 students in a year. She termed it the biggest-ever program for the educational scholarship of the country. She added that 134 initiatives are being taken under the Ehsaas program. "The entire procedure for inclusion in BISP has been made apolitical," she said.
The BISP was launched in 2008 by the then-prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, on the advice of the then president, Asif Ali Zardari. The program's name was a tribute to former premier Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007.