Senate Standing Committee highlights urgent reforms needed for BISP’s structural & HR challenges
ISLAMABAD, Sep 19 (SABAH): The Senate Standing Committee on Poverty Alleviation & Social Safety convened under the chairmanship of Senator Jan Muhammad in the BISP Hall, Islamabad, to address the structural and human resource issues within the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).
During the meeting, the Committee expressed its utmost displeasure at the non-representation from the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan in the BISP Board. The Ministry clarified that, the BISP Act of 2010 does not mandate province-wise quotas for the appointment of member(s) of its Board. Currently, there are three (03) private members from Sindh and one (01) from Punjab. The Committee stressed on the fact that Balochistan, due to its population and redressal of the issues, must have one board member and called for a resolution to ensure equitable representation from all the provinces. Moreover, the Committee recommended that the Chairman of the SSC on PA&SS may also be made a part of the Board.
Upon reviewing the sanctioned strength of the programe, the Committee observed that, 126 positions at BISP headquarters and 1,037 positions in the provinces have remained vacant. In this regard the breakdown of sanctioned positions in Balochistan and the status of deputationists in consequence to the banned recruitments. It was further apprised that, no employee appointed on deputation basis was/is absorbed nor was/is allowed to work in contradiction to the deputation policy.
The Committee also noted significant flaws in the mechanism of disbursement of funds for the province of Balochistan, further highlighting the fact that, not all the districts and tehsils are registered with BISP. The Ministry briefed that 480,000 families are benefiting from the program, however, identified challenges such as unregistered families due to the non-provision of citizen national identity cards remain an obstacle to add more beneficiaries to the program.
Moreover, concerns were raised about the disbursement methods, with reports of long queues and mistreatment of elderly women during cash collections. The Committee suggested to adopt more efficient, transparent, and digitalized disbursement methods, advocacy for the removal of third party agents in the process. At present, the beneficiaries of the BISP stand at 9.3 million families, amid calls for additional government financing to satisfy expanding demand.
The Committee towards the beginning of the meeting had recorded its displeasure on the absence of Chairperson BISP. Further, the absence of Senator Sania Nishtar, lead to the deferment of the Bill titled “The Pakistan Ehsaas Targeted Subsidies (Riayat) Program Bill 2023” for further discussion. The session was attended by Senator Abdul Shakoor, Senator Dost Ali Jeesar, Senator Nasir Mehmood, and Senator Saeed Ahmed Hashmi, along with senior representatives from the Ministry and BISP.