ISLAMABAD:Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, Shazia Marri on Thursday informed the Senate that the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had initiated the Ehsaas programme by changing the title-name of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) for political gains.
Replying to a calling attention notice of Senator Sania Nishtar, she said some Rs 77 million was spent to issue the new (BISP) cards in order to erase the name of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed.
The PTI government in fact played a political gimmick by renaming the BISP as Ehsaas, as it was scared of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed’s name, she added. The BISP’s funds of Rs 30 billion were also diverted to the Ehsaas programme, the minister said.
Shazia Marri said the last Pakistan Peoples Party government had initiated the BISP purely for the poor segments of society, without any political considerations as all the stakeholders were taken on board.
The United Nations had also applauded the programme, she added.
Shazia Marri said during the last four years, inflation was increased under a conspiracy. More than 850,000 people were excluded from the BISP programme by the previous government with mollified intentions without any proper survey.
The present government, she added, received around 200,000 appeals of the beneficiaries, whose names were excluded from the programme, she added.
The minister said the present government would not discontinue targeted subsidy. It was paying the target subsidy of Rs 28 billion to the people earning up to Rs 40,000 per month to save them from the impact of inflation, she added.