KP women MPs briefed on Ehsaas

ISLAMABAD: A delegation of 10 women MPAs from KP Assembly was briefed on the Prime Minister’s flagship programme ‘Ehsaas’ here on Friday in a bid to explore areas with potential for federal-provincial collaboration.

Dr. Sania Nishtar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation (PASSD), together with Secretary PASSD, Ali Raza Bhutta, briefed the provincial delegation. The delegation included Ayesha Naeem, Rabia Basri, Zeenat Bibi, Madiha Nisar, Maria Fatima, Sajida Hanif, Dr. Asia Asad, Ayesha Bano, Asia Khattak and Dr. Summaira Shams accompanied by MNA Nafeesa Inayatullah Khattak.

The briefing aimed to inform the KP MPAs about the Ehsaas projects and initiatives and to explore areas for mutual coordination with the KP government on signature initiatives.

Dr. Nishtar apprised them with details of Ehsaas and particularly areas with potential for federal-provincial collaboration. She described details of Ehsaas initiatives that have already been implemented; these included the ‘Ehsaas webpage for Parliamentarians optimized for mobile phones’ which will soon be launched. Through this webpage, federal provincial stakeholders will be able to take active part in execution of Ehsaas such as interest-free loans, Kifalat stipends, undergraduate scholarships, langars, etc. Dr. Nishtar also apprised the delegation about the timelines of Ehsaas projects that are currently in the pipeline. She informed them about the National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) survey that it would begin in KP soon in collaboration with KP government and elaborated how data will be collected. Dr. Nishtar assured that once the NSER survey is completed, this data will be available to provinces for use without any cost implications. Women MPAs lauded the way Ehsaas is being implemented and assured full support for the NSER survey. They praised the informative features of ‘Ehsaas webpage for Parliamentarians’ which will help them to take full benefit and ownership of Ehsaas projects in field.