The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has, reportedly, requested the government to select deserving families for the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). There is no doubt that the current procedure in place has been declared non-partisan by not only the politicians of all political parties but also by members of the civil society.
It consists of making 8000 forms available to each National Assembly member as well as senator, irrespective of party affiliations, for distribution in his/her constituency. While there is an obvious danger of providing BISP forms to one's own support base within a constituency, yet it can be argued that it is those who have been elected from a constituency who are more likely to be able to identify the needy.
It maybe recalled that prior to the 7.6 billion dollar Stand-By Arrangement extended by the IMF to Pakistan, the World Bank had urged the government to formulate a methodology for disbursement of the BISP that must be above board. The World Bank recommended a methodology that would comprise of conducting a survey, at an estimated cost of one billion rupees, by the National Rural Support Porgramme (NRSP), a non-government organisation.
Those opposed to such a survey may well point out, with a degree of credibility, that the survey cost of one billion rupees, at the rate of 1000 rupees per family per month, could be better utilised by one billion poor families in the country.
In addition, they may also argue that there is no guarantee that the NRSP will be able to conduct a survey that may be immune from corruption or indeed manipulation by politicians. These are valid arguments and one would hope that the government would consider them carefully prior to following IMF/World Bank diktat.
Be that as it may, it has been revealed that the World Bank made a successful presentation to President Zardari and secured his approval for conducting the survey. Farzana Raja, Chairperson of the BISP, has confirmed that a survey will be carried out and added that the forms made available to the members of the National Assembly and the Senate would be processed and targeted to those who need immediate assistance.