The federal government is planning to take the proposal for formation of Poverty Alleviation Authority (PAA) to the Council of Common Interests (CCIs) to get formal approval of all the provincial governments as some of the welfare projects fall within the jurisdiction of the provinces. A well-placed source told Business Recorder on Wednesday that legal hitches have delayed formation of the authority that is aimed at bringing all public social welfare organisations under one umbrella, currently working in the centre and provinces under different set of laws and acts.
The government was earlier planning to set up the authority through an act of parliament or through an official notification, but Ministry of Law and Justice has advised against it as this may create legal issues between provinces and the Centre, he added.
Prime Minister Imran Khan had pledged to unveil the poverty alleviation package during the first 100-days of his government, but this has not yet materialized. The government wants to create a poverty alleviation unit by bringing together around 16 government and semi-government organisations under one platform.
"The Council of Common Interests is the appropriate forum to address this kind of issues and the government is most likely to include it in the agenda of the next CCI meeting," a government official privy to the development said.
The wide-ranging poverty alleviation authority will be mandated to improve technical skills of youth through education, increase employment opportunities, enhance access to financial assistance for promotion of small-sized businesses and provide inexpensive accommodation, social protection and Sehat Insaf Card.
Among all these public welfare organisations, including Bait-ul-Maal and Zakat and Ushr Department, Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) remains the largest in terms of allocation of funds and number of beneficiaries. The PTI government allocated Rs124.7 billion for the BISP for fiscal year 2018-19 to provide monthly cash stipend to around 5.7 million beneficiaries, out of 7.7 million eligible families for the programme as identified through a Poverty Scorecard survey in 2010.
A BISP official said that Chairperson Dr Sania Nishtar has already given a briefing to the prime minister on the role and objectives of the organisation in alleviating poverty across the country.
About inclusion of BISP in the Poverty Alleviation Authority, he said that there would be a need to amend rules and laws of BISP if it is included in the authority, because the organisation is currently targeting poor women and their children.
He said that even if the authority is established, the government will have to formulate specific rules and laws to make all public welfare organisations work in close coordination to benefit the poor.
"The government first of all needs to define poor who would be eligible for financial and technical support," he said, adding that the project may not materialise without support of all four provincial governments.