"The government has firm belief that the nation cannot make progress and development without catering the needs of its poor segments of society and Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has followed the same approach."
BISP Chairperson Farzana Raja said this while speaking at certificate distribution ceremony among 173 male and female graduates of three-month vocational training course of "Pak-China Friendship Scholarship," a shared venture of BISP and China Foundation for Peace and Development (CFPD) on Wednesday. During the ceremony, Rs 0.1 million apiece Waseela-e-Haq cheques worth Rs 14 million were distributed amongst 92 beneficiary families.
Besides others, Ambassador of China to Pakistan Liu Jian, President PPP Punjab Imtiaz Safdar Warriach, PPP MNAs Raja Pervaiz Asharf, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Nadeem Afzal Chan were also present.
Farzana Raja said the vocational training programme was important to curb poverty and "we are grateful for co-operation from Chinese government and CFPD in this regard," adding that financial self-sustainability for downtrodden families was being sought through vocational training programme under Waseela-e-Rozgar and interest-free loan for business through Waseela-e-Haq while keeping the self-esteem of deserving families intact and safeguarded.
She further said that BISP was established to empower women and youth and now through Waseela-e-Taleem Initiative, BISP was intending to enroll more than one million children from beneficiary families in schools in April 2012 to secure their future. She said Chinese co-operation in the social sector of Pakistan especially for vocational training was highly commendable and "we hope that mutual co-operation in this regard would be continued in future as well."
Liu Jian said that BISP was doing remarkable job regarding poverty alleviation and China would keep supporting its future endeavours as well, adding that the mutual co-operation between BISP and CFPD in vocational training was proving as a bridge for mutual co-operation between the two countries in the social sector. Imtaiz Safdar said BISP was fulfilling a national obligation of working for poverty reduction, adding that the success of vocational training programme of BISP was a befitting response to the elements who throw baseless criticism on BISP.-PR