SIALKOT City News

Govt striving hard for welfare of the poor: Marvi Memon
From Our Correspondent
SIALKOT: Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) chairperson Marvi Memon has said that the government is working hard to reduce the poverty level in the country as it is among the priorities of the government to bring the poor in the mainstream of national progress and prosperity.
Addressing the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) here on Thursday, she said that the government had increased BISP funds from Rs 40 billion to Rs 102 billion to ease the lives of the poorest of the poor in the country and to provide them some badly needed relief without hurting their self esteem.
Currently, about 5.1 million very poor people in the country were being financially assisted under the BISP and Rs 315 billion had been spent up till now in this regard, she added. Marvi Memon opined that although Rs 1,500 per month was quite meagre amount but it was slowly and gradually improving the state of the poor and reducing their problems. She said that the BISP was included in the top five social programmes of the world and it was praised by the international community for its effectiveness in assisting the poor.
According to the data collected by the BISP, there were 20,000 poor families in Sialkot, who were getting financial aid, she added. She urged local industrialists to come forward and help the poor in Sialkot by imparting them different productive skills and providing them employment in the industrial sector. She said that poverty was a big problem and no government could alone fight effectively against it.
She said that the SCCI and BISP were common in one aspect that both had won international applause for their achievements and it was the right time for them to join hands to defeat poverty, at least in Sialkot. SCCI president Fazal Jilani also spoke on the occasion.