Nearly 140,000 govt employees were beneficiaries of BISP: Sania Nishtar.

ISLAMABAD -- Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Sania Nishtar on Wednesday said that nearly 140,000 government employees had been receiving welfare payments under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

Speaking to the media in Islamabad, Nishtar said that employees of Pakistan Railways, Pakistan Post and Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services had been made part of the programme. The beneficiaries were present on both provincial and federal levels, she said.

The BISP had been launched by the Pakistan Peoples Party government in 2008 to provide welfare payments to the poorest of the poor across the country. Earlier this month, the government had decided to take action against officials benefiting monetarily from the program.

According to official data, 2,543 government officials from grade 17 to...