Waseela-e-Rozgar scheme

Service providers demand release of outstanding dues

By Syed Kosar Naqvi

ABBOTTABAD: As many as 52 service providers of Waseela-e-Rozgar scheme under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) have been running from pillar to post to get their outstanding dues that haven’t been paid to them for five years. The management of the programme has allegedly shown reluctance to meet the representatives of their own partners.

Talking to reporters on Sunday, the service providers of BISP said the Waseela-e-Rozgar programme launched in September 2011 was aimed at imparting vocational training to 70,000 beneficiaries. They said so far 57,817 beneficiaries had been trained under the programme. The overall estimated financial liability against the Waseela-e-Rozgar programme stands at Rs808 million which hasn’t been paid since the closure of the programme after the end of the PPP rule.

The representatives of the affected service providers include ICMS College System Peshawar, International Institute of Education and Management Sciences (IIE&MS) Dera Ismail Khan, Press One Institute Quetta, Balochistan, Sustainable Development Society Baluchistan, Al-Falah Technical Education System Swabi, Al-Asar Development Dera Ghazi Khan, Data Link Technologies, Ektaara International Charitable Foundation, Khwaja Institute of Information Technology, M/S Unitech Training and Consultancy, Glamour Institute of IT and Integrated Development, Empowerment and Advocacy for Livelihood Support, Abbottabad.

The scheme was launched to impart vocational skills to the beneficiaries. It utilised the services of private sector trainers to impart skills to the trainees.

The service providers said the payment process that was supposed to start once the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cleared the allegations about embezzlement.

The NAB in its letter dated September 2, 2016 stated that no investigation had been pending against Waseela-e-Rozgar scheme. The affected service providers have been facing financial hardship. Shamail Naqvi, one of the training providers at Dera Ghazi Khan, said that BISP authorities had compelled them to take some extreme step. “We have lost everything including our businesses just for the reason that we signed agreements with BISP during the PPP rule,” he said.

Syed Arsalan Ali, a service provider from Balochistan, claimed that they have been struggling to get their legitimate rights for the last five years.