Prime Minister’s Youth Programme spokesperson refutes PTI chief’s allegations on PMYP chairwoman, saying Maryam has no financial or administrative control over any of the programmes as loan disbursement had been handed over to respective institutions
Prime Minister’s Youth Programme (PMYP) on Tuesday announced that its chairperson has no financial and administrative control over disbursing of loans by banks as pre and post disbursement of amount follows strict internal and external audit regime to ensure transparency.
A spokesperson of the programme strongly rebutted the allegations levelled by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan of exclusively handing over of Rs 100 billion Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan Scheme (PMYBLS) to its chairwoman Maryam Nawaz by prime minister.
Contradicting the allegations, the spokesperson said PTI’s chief lacked knowledge about independence of administrative and financial management of the implementing partners of PMYP and asked him to carefully read and understand contours of PMYP before making a statement.
The spokesperson explained that contrary to “pack of lies” told by Khan, PMYBLS was transparently implemented by National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and First Women Bank (FWB) as the loan disbursing agencies to potential young entrepreneurs through their own financial resources.
The national exchequer has not allocated a single penny directly to PMYP for rolling out PMYBLS.
The spokesperson further explained that the government of Pakistan has only earmarked Rs 5 billion as a difference to be paid to the banks with credit tenure of eight years including one year grace period.
The spokesperson maintained that the banks are accountable only to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and are entirely independent in processing, approving and rejecting the loans’ applications. Thus, the chairwoman PMYP has no financial and administrative control over the disbursing of loans by banks, it was further maintained.
The spokesperson explained that similarly the approved budgetary amount of Rs 4.0 and Rs 1.2 billion respectively for Prime Minister’s Laptop and Prime Minister’s Fee Reimbursement Schemes has been allocated directly to Higher Education Commission (HEC) and not to the PMYP.
The HEC as an implementing agency for both the schemes disburses the amount after following the laid down criteria stipulated by Ministry of Finance, the spokesperson further explained.
Explaining the Prime Minister’s Youth Skill Development Scheme, the spokesperson said an amount of Rs 800 million has been allocated directly to National Vocational & Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) as an implementing agency to impart skill development training to 25,000 youth across federation including Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
Logically, it was further explained that chairwoman of PMYP exercises no financial or administrative control over the NAVTTC’s budgetary allocation.
Defining the Prime Minister’s Interest Free Loan Scheme, the spokesperson said an amount of Rs 3.5 billion has been allocated to Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) for disbursement of 25,000 loans up to Rs 250,000 among the poor segment of society to start micro-business activity for honourable livelihood.
Naturally, the PMYP chairperson has also no financial or administrative authority over PPAF, the spokesperson added.
NBP IS NOT DISBURSING THE PMYB LOAN ON MERIT BASIS BUT ITS MAIN CIVIC CENTRE BRANCH IS USING DELAYING TACTICS IN MANY CASIS RESULTING IN MAKING THE SCHEME FAIL.
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