Govt employees benefiting from BISP get notices

ISLAMABAD: Show-cause notices were Friday served on government officials, who benefited from the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), as their names have started surfacing. These government employees used the credentials of their wives for nine years to benefit from the programme.

Sources told NNI that an inquiry against the officials, including BISP Assistant Director in Dera Ghazi Mohammad Nauman, had been launched on the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The premier expressed strong displeasure when a report on beneficiaries disqualified from the BISP database on the basis of being government employees or servants of railways was presented to him.

Those receiving show-cause notices have been given 10 days for response failing which their services will be terminated. According to details, 2,543 senior officers were removed from the BISP list, while officials from Balochistan and Sindh received highest amounts.

Overall, three officers of grade 21 and 59 officers of grade 20 quarterlyreceived the sum under the programme whereas 429 officials of grade 19 were also among the beneficiaries.

As many as 342 officers of grade 18 from Sindh and 1,240 officers of grade 17 overall derived advantages from the scheme.

Out of a total of 820,165 beneficiaries disqualified from the BISP database, 14,730 were government employees or servants of railways, post office and the BISP programme, as the aid was not meant for government servants. The government has raised the quarterly grant from Rs5,000 to Rs5,500 for 4.3 million beneficiaries under the Ehsaas Kafalat Programme of the BISP, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation and BISP Chairman Dr Sania Nishtar had said in a statement. Dr Sania had said the government would now additionally provide Rs8.6 billion for the poverty-stricken individuals.

Meantime, the Judicial Activism Panel has sent letters to President Dr Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan and NAB Chairman Justice (R) Javed Iqbal to issue orders for opening a thorough investigation into corruption in the BISP.

The letter to NAB chairman stated that the BISP had been exposed in recent days which slashed the money allocated for poor and needy people and doled it out to corrupt and blue-eyed persons. The panel called for an investigation against the corrupt practices to find out more evidences. It was urged to spot the responsible persons after the emergence of a recent report released by the Nadra.