Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has started distributing 'Benazir Smart Cards' to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of Malakand division. The distribution of Benazir Cards is underway with the technical assistance of Untied Bank Ltd and distribution points have been set up in Panr, Kabal, Matta, Buner, Batkhela, Tamargara and Charsadda.
The Benazir Cards will allow the families receiving cash assistance from BISP to easily withdraw cash from their accounts. 318,126 IDP families will receive the Benazir Cards. Initially, Rs 6,000 are being disbursed to the IDPs as a first instalment for the months of April 2009 to September 2009 while remaining amount will be paid in due time.
For further instalments, the female head of each IDP family will have to get herself registered with Nadra. Only those families will get aid, which had earlier received Rs 25,000 through the Special Support Group. BISP will soon launch a nation-wide poverty survey through which deserving families will be identified and then get financial aid.
BISP is a social protection programme working to bring relief to the poorest of the poor section of the society. So far Rs 33.54 billion has been disbursed by BISP to 2.7 million deserving families. This number will be increased to five million by the end of this year.