Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has approved a summary, relaxing a ban on fresh recruitment's in Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), thereby enabling the entity to fill around 2,000 vacancies. Talking to Business Recorder, BISP Chairman Enver Baig confirmed that the Prime Minister has approved the summary for fresh recruitment's in BISP.
"There are some donor-funded and some local vacancies in the programme and we are devising criteria to fill these posts separately," he said, adding that all the recruitment's would be made purely on merit. The summary was moved by Enver Baig in December last year to the Prime Minister, seeking a relaxation in the ban.
An official source in the BISP told Business Recorder on Saturday that it would take three to four weeks to finalise Terms of Reference for different posts in the programme. "In the first phase, all key posts lying vacant in the programme would be filled," he said.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had earlier imposed a ban on all recruitment's in federal ministries, divisions, autonomous bodies and corporations till further orders. The Prime Minister, however, lifted the ban on recruitment in all law enforcement agencies on August 30 with the objective of tackling the chronic menace of terrorism and militancy in the country. The official said that fresh recruitment's are a lengthy and hectic process; therefore it would be premature to say at the moment about its completion date.
The official record shows that the total sanctioned strength of BISP is 4,000 employees but at the moment the programme is operating with around 2,000 employees across the country. There are around 1,000 BISP officials while about 1,000 are on deputation from different ministries and government departments for the running of routine affairs.
The official, however, claimed that officials on deputation are not helpful as they keep coming and going. "BISP is a regular public welfare institution therefore it needs its own manpower to run the affairs smoothly," he said.
The programme is short-staffed which is hampering its functions especially in rural areas of the country, he said, adding that around seventy five percent of the work of BISP is in the rural areas. "Understaffing is badly hampering efficiency of the programme and there are delays in reaching all our beneficiaries on time," he said adding that new recruitment would also help the programme meet all the commitments made with the international donor and financial organisations in a timely manner.
At the moment, the BISP is providing financial help to around 5.1 million poor families across Pakistan; these were identified on the basis of a nationwide poverty scorecard survey using a proxy means test approach. Around 2.4 million eligible poor families are not yet receiving the cash transfers because the female head does not hold a CNIC, which is the key eligibility criterion. The official claimed that once the process of new recruitment is completed, it would help the programme reach already identified poor families and boost its performance.