Advisor to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Division (PA&SPD), Dr Sania Nishtar has said that the government is committed to alleviating poverty from the country for which various programmes are being implemented at federal and provincial levels.
While briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat which met here under the chairmanship of Syed Amin-ul-Haque, she briefed the panel about the functions and organisational structure of the division and autonomous/attached departments under its administrative control.
Nistar said that the PA&SPD was created to administer the policy regarding social protection, formulate strategies for poverty alleviation and establishment of various innovative challenges to design initiatives for poverty alleviation in coordination with the relevant stakeholders.
The special assistant to the PM apprised the committee that PA&SPD was created with the basic aim to bring all the departments and organisations dealing with the social protection and poverty alleviation under one roof.
She said that the division would administer the policy regarding social protection, formulate strategies for poverty alleviation and establishment of various innovative challenges to design initiatives for poverty alleviation in coordination with the relevant stakeholders.
She further informed that the present democratic government is conscious of the plight of marginalized segments of the society and all those living below the poverty line; therefore it has launched a comprehensive and multidimensional pro-poor Ehsaas programme.
She said that the programme shall play a pivotal role in creating a welfare state. She said that economic empowerment of women and human development are also highlights of the programme. The committee appreciated the creation of the PA&SPD, however, it decided to have a comprehensive briefing on Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal and Benazir Income Support Programme in next meeting of the committee.
The committee later discussed the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2018 (Amendment of Article 27), moved by Aliya Kamran, MNA; and Federal Public Service Commission (Validation of Rules) Ordinance, 2018 (Ord. No. XII of 2018) and pended further discussion on both the Bills for its next meeting.
The committee directed Law Division to record its views on the summary moved by Establishment Division at the earliest so that it could take up the Bill in its next meeting. The committee also directed the Establishment Division to apprise the committee about the FPSC Ordinance in light of the latest order of the Supreme Court.
The meeting was attended by Ali Muhammad Khan, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Dr Sania Nishtar, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Division; Saleem Rehman, Ali Nawaz Awan, Muhammad Aslam Khan, Uzma Riaz, Muhammad Hashim, Shahnaz Saleem Malik, Syed Mehmood Shah, Aliya Kamran, Secretary PA&SSD, Chief Executive Poverty Alleviation Fund, Managing Director Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal and Senior Officers of the concerned departments.