Islamabad: The Senate Standing Committee on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety on Wednesday strongly recommended lifting the recruitment ban in the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM), besides raising concerns over vacant posts, deputation policy and blocked BISP cards.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Sardar Al-Haj Muhammad Umer Gorgaij.
Senator Rubina Qaimkhani, Senator Jan Muhammad and Senator Dost Ali Jeesar attended the meeting, while Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Syed Imran Ahmad Shah was also present.
The committee stressed the need to discourage appointments on deputation from the Education and Health sectors to BISP.
The Federal Minister apprised the committee that the Ministry of Finance and Revenue had already been approached on the matter.
He proposed that the committee recommend ensuring a smooth transition of pending recruitments and assured that the matter would be presented before the Prime Minister.
The committee also discussed the shortage of mobile vans and measures required to address the issue in Balochistan.
The Federal Minister informed the committee that 18 of the total 25 available mobile vans had been allocated to facilitate beneficiaries in Balochistan.
The issue of around 400,000 blocked BISP cards of beneficiaries also came under discussion. It was decided that the matter would be taken up with the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) for an appropriate way forward.
The committee was further informed that 17 individuals were currently working on deputation at Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal across the country, while 45 employees had recently been promoted.
The committee was also briefed about the recovery of Rs1.9 million in House Rent Allowance (HRA) from an officer of Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal. It was informed that a portion of the HRA had been recovered, leaving an outstanding amount of Rs1.55 million.
The committee deferred consideration of the report of its sub-committee.