Service providers of Waseela-e-Rozgar Scheme yet to be paid dues

ABBOTTABAD: More than 52 service providers of Waseela-e-Rozgar Scheme under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) have been running from pillar to post to have dues cleared.

The service providers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa told The News that that they went to the BISP office and tried to meet the secretary but in vein.Abdul Sattar Khattak, owner of Green Land Polytechnical Institute in Karak, alleged that the staff of the secretary categorically told him that she had directed them not to allow any service providers into her office.

He believed that the BISP authorities were reluctant to release outstanding dues to the training providers by claiming that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was conducting investigation against the Waseela-e-Rozgar Scheme of the BISP.

However, he disclosed that NAB in a letter on September 2, 2016 had clearly stated that no such investigation was taking place.The NAB had written the letter in response to a query by a charity that had requested for a clarification if the Waseela-e-Rozgar Scheme was under investigation by the NAB.

The Waseela-e-Rozgar Scheme was launched in September 2011. It was aimed at imparting vocational training to 70,000 people. Out of these, 57,817 were trained. The overall estimated financial liability against the Waseela-e-Rozgar Scheme comes to Rs 808 million. This has been pending following the closure of the programme after the end of term of the previous Pakistan People’s Party government.

The amount includes Rs 477 million owed to the service providers, Rs236 million stipends to the beneficiaries and Rs95 million rupees as examination fee and provision of tool kits to the trainees.Most of the service providers come from the working class and have been facing financial hardships since the time the amount was withheld.

Saqib Hussain Shah, manager, IDEALS, another service provider in Abbottabad, said there was no justification for non-payment to service providers after completion of a study by the BISP in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that declared everything was in order.