Condemning the remarks of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif against the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), BISP Chairwoman Farzana Raja said on Sunday that the people of Pakistan were under great threat from “political terrorists” whose politics were just limited to controversial statements.
Farzana told a press conference here at BISP Secretariat that Sharif’s recent statements regarding the BISP not only reflected his ignorance but were also offensive to the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), as he has called them saleable commodities. “Nawaz shows his negative thinking by saying that the PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) buys the Kashmiris in return for BISP forms,” she said. The Kashmiri people would never forgive him for this insult, she added.
RS 47 BILLION DISBURSED: She said BISP was a completely national programme and it had no political links, adding that the programme was serving the poor people of the country indiscriminately. She said the apolitical nature of the programme could be proved from the fact that Rs 47 billion had been disbursed in the first phase of the programme among beneficiaries recommended by the representatives of the political parties other than the PPP, while only Rs 25 billion had been distributed on the recommendations of parliamentarians belonging to the PPP.
“Out of these Rs 47 billion, approximately Rs 15 billion have been distributed among the families recommended by the PML-N, Rs 15.5 billion among those recommended by the PML-Q, Rs 4.5 billion among those recommended by the MQM (Muttahida Qaumi Movement) and Rs 3 billion among the families recommended by the ANP (Awami National Party),” she said. Farzana said the BISP was the practical manifestation of the dreams of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and was being expanded successfully.
She said Rs 65 billion had been allocated to the BISP in the federal budget, while the availability of funds has been ensured according to the programme’s requirements. She said various international donor agencies were also willing to extend their support to the BISP in its poverty alleviation objectives and it was expected that the programme would be extended further with the help of funds obtained from these international bodies.
The PPP leader criticised the statements of the former AJK prime minister Raja Farooq Haider, saying he was also toeing the same line adopted by Sharif and he seemed to have forgotten the fact that while receiving BISP forms, he was quite appreciative of the BISP and termed it a very useful programme. She said the people of Pakistan in all four provinces would also reject such a negative mindset in the next elections.
She said the financial assistance disbursed under the BISP could not be stopped or held as the payment mechanism was automated.