‘Transgender persons to get Rs7,000 quarterly under BISP’

KARACHI: The federal government also incorporated transgender community in the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

Under the financial assistance programme, the destitute members of the transgender community enrolled in the BISP would get financial assistance of Rs7,000 on a quarterly basis in addition to other benefits available to the regular BISP beneficiaries in the country.

Addressing to the launching ceremony of the new welfare initiative held at the Arts Council’s auditorium, Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, Shazia Marri said the new initiative was taken for the financial empowerment of transgender persons keeping in view their economically disadvantaged position.

She said the members of the transgender fraternity would be able to become beneficiaries of the BISP after getting duly registered with the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).

She assured the representatives of the transgender community that the government would fully support the drive for the socio-economic uplift of their fraternity. She urged the transgender persons to perform an active role in the progress and development of Pakistan. Marri said the government was fully aware of the serious economic and social problems being faced by the transgender fraternity in the country.

The federal minister said the government would allocate the maximum resources available at its disposal for providing due economic relief to transgender people.

On the occasion, three members of the transgender community who successfully enrolled in the BISP were handed financial assistance of Rs7,000 by the federal minister.

Marri said that around 900,000 financially disadvantaged families were the beneficiaries of the BISP all over the country. Talking to media persons on the occasion, Marri said the federal government would do its best to protect the poor people in the country from the fallout of its accord with the IMF. She said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had constituted a committee for taking austerity measures such as cutting down unnecessary expenditures of the government.