ISLAMABAD: Officials of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) on Monday clarified the issue of changing the name of the body, saying that no amendment has been placed before the parliament in this regard.
As per the information issued by the department, BISP is the name of an act and institution. “No amendment has been placed before the parliament to change its name and there has been no formal discussion on the subject,” officials said.
They added that a number of programmes are currently executed from BISP as an organisation, including Unconditional Cash Transfers, Conditional Cash Transfers, Waseela-e-Taleem, Graduation Programme, among others.
The government has recently launched a transformative poverty alleviation programme titled ‘Ehsaas’. Two of the initiatives under this new programme will be executed through BISP. These include ‘Kifalat’ and ‘Tahafuz’, details about which will be revealed shortly.
It is pertinent to mention here that the government and opposition lawmakers have remained in a war of words during the last few days on removing Benazir’s name from the programme. The Pakistan People’s Party has strongly resisted the apparent government plan with regard to changing the name of BISP.
On Saturday, during his visit to Ghotki in Sindh, Prime Minister Imran Khan reportedly agreed with PTI allies that the name of the BISP should be changed after they alleged that the PPP was misusing the poverty alleviation project. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari responded to the development by saying that the government was ‘conspiring’ to wrap up the project by initially changing its name and then reducing its funds.
Under the BISP, in operation since 2010, more than Rs124 billion had been allocated in the budget for 2018-19 for distribution among 5.6 million women at a rate of Rs4,834 per quarter for each recipient.