Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation & Social Safety (PA&SS) and Chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Shazia Marri and Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal jointly inaugurated the Benazir Dynamic Registry Centre at the BISP District Office Narowal.
During the inaugural ceremony, Shazia Marri briefed the audience about the Registry, which evaluates socioeconomic conditions on a fluid basis and updates data periodically. The Registry is operational at 600 centres across Pakistan, and it benefits over 9 million people, Ms Marri added. She said that the quarterly amount had now been increased from 7,000 to 8,500 and the hindrances in it would be removed completely.
The minister said that floods and global inflation had changed the economic conditions of people in Pakistan and the National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) survey was mandatory for inclusion in the BISP beneficiary list.
She urged women to get registered through the NSER survey and thanked Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal for his support.
Shazia Marri said that the BISP would expand the scope of the income support programme, so that the poor could benefit in this era of inflation. She said that from time to time her ministry officers were engaged with the Ministry of Planning and Development so that they could somehow start programmes that could really help development of people with proper vision and planning.
The federal minister said that currently, there were programmes within the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety in which skills training was being given and assets were being given to people, and the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund institution is associated with the ministry. While the National Poverty Graduation Programme only enrolls the beneficiaries of BISP and the department was trying to expand its scope. “Where financial assistance is being provided, we want to provide skills training to people, especially women, so that they could stand on their own feet,” she added. She said that Waseela programme, which was part of the BISP programme, but it was discontinued for some reasons. “We are trying to introduce such a programme once again,” she added.
Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal said that the government would try to ensure registration of deserving people including women, orphans children and those families who have no support within Narowal so that the fruitful results of the programme could reach them. He said that the success of the program today reflected the success of a larger fundamental principle that the programme was not related to politics. It is for the betterment of people and the country, he added. “If we will ignore the national programme of Pakistan to politics, then it will damage the country and people,” he added.
Ahsan Iqbal said that in the BISP, the government and Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in particular were taking special interest so that through it the department could provide maximum support to the poor and needy people.