Govt to take action against 2,543 officers reaping benefits from BISP

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to take action against those officials who have been benefiting monetarily from the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

According to official data, 2,543 government officials from grade 17 to 21 were mentioned as beneficiaries under the welfare scheme.

Few days ago, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Ehsas Programme Sania Nishtar had announced the removal of 820,000 ‘undeserving’ beneficiaries.

Nishtar said that new people would be included in place of those removed and the BISP list would be scrutinised every year.

According to the documents, high-ranking officials from the centre and four provinces were reaping benefits from the scheme.

The documents revealed that most of the officials were registered under the names of their wives, whereas, the highest number of undeserving beneficiaries was seen from Balochistan with 741 registered officials.

In Sindh, 342 officials of grade-18 gained profit from the scheme, while six officers of the BISP also registered in the programme to gain benefits.

Earlier, Dr Nishtar had shared in a post on Twitter that the federal government had given approval for removing 820,165 BISP beneficiaries.

“Using forensic data analysis, we found that they [the beneficiaries] were ineligible for [income] support based on the criteria,” she had tweeted. She had claimed that the exclusion would save Rs16 billion annually. 

“The entire procedure for inclusion in BISP has been made apolitical,” she assured.

“10 years ago, BISP beneficiaries were decided through a survey. From now, beneficiaries will be selected using data from NADRA,” she added.

BISP beneficiaries have been receiving Rs5,000 per quarter since 2011, she shared.

Related: Bilawal slams govt over removal of women beneficiaries from BISP