Zardari advises Farzana to help poor in health, education

President Asif Ali Zardari, on Friday, advised Benazir Income Support Programme chairperson Farzana Raja to explore new avenues to help poorest of poor in fields of health, education and jobs with assistance of local and international corporate sectors.
He expressed these views when Farzana Raja called on him at the presidency on Friday.
The president directed the chairperson to especially focus on providing educational and vocational facilities of the programme to the people of FATA and Balochistan.
He appreciated the efforts of Farzana Raja and her entire team in serving the people of the country while maintaining world-wide recognised transparency and objectivity.
He advised her to attract the support of private sector of the country as well international donors for further broadening the resource base of the programme so that more and more people could be benefited from various components of BISP.
Farzana briefed the president about various activities being undertaken under the umbrella of BISP.
She said that 0.4 million deserving families from Balochistan had been included in BISP. Besides, the poverty survey had been completed in the FATA and very soon its people would be the beneficiaries of various BISP services and programmes.
She informed that so far 1.8 million Benazir Debit Cards had been issued to the beneficiary families across Pakistan and, by December 2012, the number would rise to approximately 4 million.
The president termed BISP as a trust and a hope for the seven million poor households of the country and expressed the hope that the programme would become the comprehensive social security net in the country.
He also advised the chairperson to maintain close coordination with the departments concerned especially in Sindh who were working on contingency plans to meet any emerging challenge in case of floods this year.

Farzana thanked the president for meeting and assured of her best efforts, and of her entire team in providing relief to the poor of the country regardless of any consideration whatsoever.