Non-deserving beneficiaries of BISP to be removed for transparency: Sania Nishtar.

ISLAMABAD -- Around 800,000 'non-deserving' beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) have been disqualified for giving space to the needy people on the basis of promoting transparency and merit, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation and BISP Chairman Dr Sania Nishtar revealed on Thursday.

During a press conference in Islamabad, Dr. Sania asserted that measures have been taken to secure due rights for the deserving people only, and that whole procedure for inclusion in BISP has been made apolitical.

She said that the disqualification criteria includes travel history of the member, vehicle ownership, availing facility of executive services for passport and National Identity Card (NIC) and service in government sectors.

She termed inclusion of 216 villages located alongside restive Line of Control (LoC) in Kifalat Program 'another milestone of the Ehsaas Programme.'

She said people of these villages were the most deserving due to their frequent economic losses as due to cross border firing from the Indian side of the border.

Defending the decision to strike the names from the database, Nishtar said the government had crafted certain criteria for the beneficiaries and had also taken the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) on board.

"We have tried our best to choose objective criteria so that a forensic audit can be conducted down the line if the need arises. "This is not an ad-hoc decision that was made on a whim or on a political basis."

Nishtar added that government employees will not be included among the beneficiaries. "Government employees, regardless of their grade, are paid accordingly. Which means that they will never be included among the country's poorest."

"Deserving citizens will be brought in place of the 800,000 names that were removed from the database," she said.

Explaining the new criteria, the PM's aide said women as well as their husbands who have traveled abroad once or on multiple occasions, own a car, have a PTCL phone bill of more than Rs1,000 over a six-month period or a mobile phone expense of more than Rs1,000 in the same time frame will...