The government in its first crackdown on about 140,000 of its employees, who fraudulently secured financial assistance from the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), has forwarded the cases of over 2,000 government officers to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). It was revealed by Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar during a press conference here on Wednesday.

Akbar said the government has also written to all chief secretaries and the Establishment Division for taking departmental action and recovering funds from the government officers who benefited from BISP, which is aimed at providing financial support to the deserving poor and destitute.

It was decided to ask the FIA to register criminal cases against the said government officers and the people who assisted them in withdrawing BISP funds because the expenditure was carried out from the federal budget, the SAPM said. He said the government analysis had revealed that as many as 140,000 government employees or their spouses benefited from BISP funds meant for the poor.

A major chunk of the 140,000 people are government employees of grade-1 to grade-16 while the rest (2,037) were officers of grade-17 to grade-22.

"There was a lack of transparency in the system and its regulations that this went on for years and the officers continued to withdraw money," Akbar said, adding that it was important to "name and shame" people who consumed funds meant for the poor.

Giving a breakdown of the cases identified across the country, the SAPM said the number of government employees of grade-17 and above whose spouses fraudulently benefited from BISP was nine in Azad Kashmir and 40 in Gilgit-Baltistan. As many as 554 officers or their spouses benefited from the programme in Balochistan, 342 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 101 in Punjab and 938 in Sindh.

A total of 39 employees of grade-1 to grade-16 and four officers of grade-17 and above who worked for BISP itself benefited from the programme; they have now been fired. Among employees of the federal government, this number was 48.

SAPM Akbar also revealed names of several officers from the education department in Balochistan who had two wives and both of whom were benefiting from BISP.

Earlier last month, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar had disclosed that the government had conducted forensic data analysis and identified 820,165 undeserving people who were availing the BISP assistance. Launched in July 2008, the federally-funded BISP is Pakistan's largest social safety net, catering to women and benefiting million of people.