ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel, Thursday, recommended the government to expand the Board of Directors (BoD) of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) to ensure equitable representation from all the provinces.
The Senate Standing Committee on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety which met here under the chairmanship of Senator Jan Muhammad to address the structural and human resource issues within the BISP also expressed displeasure over the absence of the chairperson BISP.
During the meeting, the committee expressed serious displeasure over the non-representation from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Balochistan provinces in the BISP Board. Briefing the panel, the ministry officials clarified that, the BISP Act of 2010 does not mandate province-wise quotas for the appointment of members of its Board. Currently, there are three private members from Sindh and one from Punjab.
The Committee stressed on the fact that Balochistan, due to its population and redressal of the issues, must have one board member. Moreover, the committee recommended that the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety may also be made a part of the Board.
Upon reviewing the sanctioned strength of the programme, the committee observed that, 126 positions at BISP headquarters and 1,037 positions in the provinces have remained vacant.
In this regard, the breakdown of sanctioned positions in Balochistan and the status of deputationists in consequence to the banned recruitments. It was further apprised that, no employee appointed on deputation basis was/is absorbed nor was/is allowed to work in contradiction to the deputation policy.
The committee also noted significant flaws in the mechanism of disbursement of funds for the province of Balochistan, further highlighting the fact that, not all the districts and tehsils are registered with BISP. The ministry briefed that 480,000 families are benefiting from the programme; however, identified challenges such as unregistered families due to the non-provision of citizen national identity cards remain an obstacle to add more beneficiaries to the programme.
Moreover, concerns were raised about the disbursement methods, with reports of long queues and mistreatment of elderly women during cash collections. The committee suggested to adopt more efficient, transparent, and digitalised disbursement methods, advocacy for the removal of third party agents in the process.
At present, the beneficiaries of the BISP stand at 9.3 million families, amid calls for additional government financing to satisfy expanding demand.
The panel recorded its displeasure on the absence of chairperson BISP and further, the absence of Senator Sania Nishtar, lead to the deferment of the bill titled, “The Pakistan Ehsaas Targeted Subsidies (Riayat) Program Bill 2023” for further discussion.
The session was attended by senators, Abdul Shakoor, Dost Ali Jeesar, NasirMehmood, and Saeed Ahmed Hashmi, along with senior representatives from the ministry and the BISP.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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