AGL 40.10 Decreased By ▼ -0.90 (-2.2%)
AIRLINK 127.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.34 (-0.27%)
BOP 6.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-1.49%)
CNERGY 4.60 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (1.77%)
DCL 8.58 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.35%)
DFML 41.40 Increased By ▲ 0.31 (0.75%)
DGKC 86.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.63 (-0.72%)
FCCL 32.13 Decreased By ▼ -1.26 (-3.77%)
FFBL 65.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.02%)
FFL 10.27 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-1.91%)
HUBC 110.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.03%)
HUMNL 14.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.60 (-3.92%)
KEL 5.15 Increased By ▲ 0.17 (3.41%)
KOSM 7.15 Decreased By ▼ -0.28 (-3.77%)
MLCF 41.69 Decreased By ▼ -1.30 (-3.02%)
NBP 60.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.22 (-0.36%)
OGDC 194.48 Decreased By ▼ -3.16 (-1.6%)
PAEL 27.95 Decreased By ▼ -1.06 (-3.65%)
PIBTL 7.98 Decreased By ▼ -0.28 (-3.39%)
PPL 150.52 Decreased By ▼ -3.64 (-2.36%)
PRL 27.08 Increased By ▲ 2.08 (8.32%)
PTC 16.08 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.06%)
SEARL 78.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.25 (-0.32%)
TELE 7.42 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.68%)
TOMCL 35.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.39 (-1.08%)
TPLP 7.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.17 (-2.11%)
TREET 15.87 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-0.56%)
TRG 52.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.66 (-1.24%)
UNITY 26.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-0.22%)
WTL 1.28 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.79%)
BR100 9,920 Decreased By -52.1 (-0.52%)
BR30 30,751 Decreased By -346.3 (-1.11%)
KSE100 93,225 Decreased By -423.8 (-0.45%)
KSE30 28,885 Decreased By -132.9 (-0.46%)

The federal government is planning to take the proposal for formation of Poverty Alleviation Authority (PAA) to the Council of Common Interests (CCIs) to get formal approval of all the provincial governments as some of the welfare projects fall within the jurisdiction of the provinces. A well-placed source told Business Recorder on Wednesday that legal hitches have delayed formation of the authority that is aimed at bringing all public social welfare organisations under one umbrella, currently working in the centre and provinces under different set of laws and acts.
The government was earlier planning to set up the authority through an act of parliament or through an official notification, but Ministry of Law and Justice has advised against it as this may create legal issues between provinces and the Centre, he added.
Prime Minister Imran Khan had pledged to unveil the poverty alleviation package during the first 100-days of his government, but this has not yet materialized. The government wants to create a poverty alleviation unit by bringing together around 16 government and semi-government organisations under one platform.
"The Council of Common Interests is the appropriate forum to address this kind of issues and the government is most likely to include it in the agenda of the next CCI meeting," a government official privy to the development said.
The wide-ranging poverty alleviation authority will be mandated to improve technical skills of youth through education, increase employment opportunities, enhance access to financial assistance for promotion of small-sized businesses and provide inexpensive accommodation, social protection and Sehat Insaf Card.
Among all these public welfare organisations, including Bait-ul-Maal and Zakat and Ushr Department, Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) remains the largest in terms of allocation of funds and number of beneficiaries. The PTI government allocated Rs124.7 billion for the BISP for fiscal year 2018-19 to provide monthly cash stipend to around 5.7 million beneficiaries, out of 7.7 million eligible families for the programme as identified through a Poverty Scorecard survey in 2010.
A BISP official said that Chairperson Dr Sania Nishtar has already given a briefing to the prime minister on the role and objectives of the organisation in alleviating poverty across the country.
About inclusion of BISP in the Poverty Alleviation Authority, he said that there would be a need to amend rules and laws of BISP if it is included in the authority, because the organisation is currently targeting poor women and their children.
He said that even if the authority is established, the government will have to formulate specific rules and laws to make all public welfare organisations work in close coordination to benefit the poor.
"The government first of all needs to define poor who would be eligible for financial and technical support," he said, adding that the project may not materialise without support of all four provincial governments.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019

Comments

Comments are closed.