Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation and BISP Chairman Dr Sania Nishtar on Saturday said that the government has raised the quarterly grant from Rs 5,000 to Rs 5,500 for 4.3 million beneficiaries under the Ehsaas Kifalat Programme of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). In a statement, Dr Sania said that the government would now additionally provide Rs8.6 billion for the poverty-stricken individuals. She said the BISP has now 4.27 million active beneficiaries after 0.82 million undeserving beneficiaries were delisted. She said that the stipend would be given to the deserving beneficiaries only. ‘Non-deserving beneficiaries removed for transparency’ Around 800,000 “non-deserving” beneficiaries of the BISP have been disqualified for giving space to the needy people on the basis of promoting transparency and merit, Dr Sania Nishtar had revealed.