Sania defends removal of 800,000 names from BISP list.

Byline: Bakhtawar Mian

ISLAMABAD -- Special AssAisAtant to the Prime MinisAter on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar on Thursday defended the government decision to exclude over 800,000 people from among the beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) after describing them 'undeserving' and said that really poor people would be enlisted in the BISP.

She said the decision had been taken in order to ensure transparency and merit.

'These beneficiaries could not fulfil the criteria fixed for getting income support from the social safety net, so they were found to be ineligible for the assistance. A survey conducted 10 years ago identified these beneficiaries whose financial position might have improved during this long period of time. It is also possible that these people had never been truly deserving of the stipend. The screening was done through a forensic analysis,' Ms Nishtar told reporters at a press conference.

While defending the decision, Dr Nishtar - who is also BISP chairperson - said the government had devised special eligibility criteria in which the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) had also been taken on board. According to the new plan, government employees will not be included amongst the beneficiaries. 'Government servants of any categories are paid according to their grades so they can never be amongst the country's poorest,' said Dr Nishtar.

Programme chief believes decision will ensure transparency, merit

Similarly, those who have travelled abroad, possessed cars, paid a PTCL phone bill of more than Rs1,000 over a six-month period or a mobile phone with as much monthly bill cannot be included amongst the beneficiaries, she added.

Apart from this, citizens and their spouses who have paid for Nadra's executive services will also be ineligible for the BISP assistance.

She said the financial assistance under the BISP had been linked with the rate of inflation. More deserving people will be enlisted for financial assistance. For this purpose, registration centres would also be established in every district of the country to facilitate the deserving people, she added.

The new criteria would be completely free from any kind of discretion or political influence, the BISP chairperson claimed.

Dr Nishtar said the decision to remove the names from the BISP list had been taken after the approval of the federal cabinet.

During the criteria review, she said, some aspects were...