KP Govt to launch its own poverty reduction: Mahmood Khan

PESHAWAR: The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will also launch its own poverty reduction and welfare Ehsaas Program side by side with that of the federal government.

The program will be implemented in close coordination with the Federal Government in a way to supplement the Federal Government’s efforts and avoid all sorts of duplication.

This was agreed between the Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on social protection and poverty alleviation Dr. Sania Nishtar at the Pakhtunkhwa House Islamabad Monday.

During the meeting Dr. Sania Nishtar briefed the Chief Minister about the Ehsaas program stating that its strategy has been articulated in four pillars and it currently embodies 115 policy actions, which will be expanded as the process of consultations on the program further widen.

The four pillars include, addressing elite capture and making the government system work to create equality; safety nets for disadvantaged segments of the population; jobs and livelihoods; and human capital development.  It is targeted to driving the governments entire might in the pursuit of the objectives of equality and human development, she said.

This is a comprehensive program for the extremely poor, orphans, widows, the homeless, the disabled, those who risk medical impoverishment, for the jobless, for poor farmers, for laborers, for the sick and undernourished; for students from low-income backgrounds and for poor women and elderly citizens and also lifting lagging areas where poverty is higher.

She said that a fresh data on the subject is being compiled so that the weaknesses of the past programs are properly and timely covered.

The Chief Minister KP on this occasion stated that efforts should be made to ensure the usufructs of the program easily and specifically reaches to those for whom it is formulated.

He also said that the selection of the beneficiaries too be throughout made transparent and no political or personal affiliation should affect or interfere with the process.

The Chief Minister therefore appreciated the compilation of fresh data for the purpose. Again he said that the program should be executed in a way that the deserving segments of society are taken out of the poverty trap at the maximum level and in each and every part of the country the specific local dynamics and untapped must not be ignored.

The Chief Minister assured that his government will not only contribute to and support the federal government but launch its own one also where these efforts will be supplemented thus the Province may develop its own indicators too.

It was therefore agreed that the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and safety nets will soon organize a proper and detail briefing for the  government so that the Province to prepare its own program in accordance with its local condition avoiding every type of possible duplication.