Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Mohammad Shehzad Arbab chaired a presentation on the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Deserving Widows and Special Persons Welfare Foundation at the committee room of Civil Secretariat, Peshawar on Thursday to implement the Chief Minister's directives to collect data and identify the deserving people and provide them financial assistance on the pattern of Benazir Income Support Programme(BISP).
The participants of the presentation included Chairman of the Foundation Lieutenant Colonel Ali Quli Khan(Retd), members Aslam Farooq, Iskandar Khan, Dr Faiza Asghar, Dr Mehr Taj Roghani, Dr Anisur Rahman, Abdullah Yousaf, Malik Adeel Khan, Dr Perveen Azam Khan, Dr Sania Nishtar and Muhammad Daud Khan as well as officers of the Social Welfare, Zakat and Ushr departments.
The participants were apprised of the progress on the chief Minister's directives and was told that data regarding 1, 00,000 widows and disabled persons enlisted with the BISEP had been obtained, analysed and targets groups identified while the financial implications were being worked out. It was stated that an ordinance in this regard was passed, promulgated and later on converted into an act. Moreover the provincial Zakat Council and finance department approved a fund of Rs 250 million each.
It was disclosed that the aims of the foundation were to provide financial assistance, training, tools, equipment and shelter to the deserving widows and disabled people in the province. The participants were told that from the BISEP the selected widows would be given Rs 1200 per month while the widows would be given Rs 2500 each under this foundation.
It was further stated that in the first phase of the proposed financial assistance target group, 14,735 deserving widows and 12,900 deserving disabled would get onetime assistance up to Rs 30,000 at the rate of Rs 2,500 per month. The chief secretary urged the participants to work out a better mechanism so that the proposed programme could be finalised in the formal meeting of the board with operational strategy and working culture of the foundation and to implement the assistance plan of the present government for the larger support of the widows and disabled people in the province.