Tag: BISP

  • Govt officer commits suicide ‘due to NAB harassment’

    Govt officer commits suicide ‘due to NAB harassment’

    A senior government official, who was named in a corruption reference, committed suicide on Tuesday owing to the alleged harassment by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

    Geo News reported that the deceased, a BS-22 officer, was upset because of NAB’s ongoing investigation against him and others for months. According to the report that quoted a family friend of the deceased, the officer killed himself because he was “deeply stressed” due to NAB.

    A NAB spokesperson rejected the allegations. According to NAB, the deceased was not even in its custody. It added that the case was filed six months ago and it’s sub-judice at present.

    Reportedly, the deceased was named in a case pertaining to the alleged embezzlement of Rs1.657 billion after the Benazir Income Support Programme high-ups awarded an illegal contract to an advertising agency.

    NAB has been accused of pressurising suspects on multiple occasions, and this is not the first time that someone has committed suicide to escape its clutches.

    It is to mention here that former Military Intelligence officer and prominent defense analyst Brig (r) Asad Munir committed suicide after the emergence of media reports that NAB had decided to file a reference of abuse of office against him. His body was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his apartment in Diplomatic Enclave on March 16, 2019.

    Furthermore, former Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) senator Sehar Kamran also compiled data which claimed that “NAB custody is worse than the United States’ (US) infamous military jail, the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp”.

    The scattered data of alleged rights violations by NAB was compiled by Kamran in a brief she reportedly sent to Federal Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari among other authorities concerned earlier this year.

    According to the brief, 11 NAB suspects have lost their lives while in custody or “as a direct result of the harassment by the agency”.

  • Imran govt renamed ‘Benazir Income Support Programme’ as ‘Ehsaas’

    Imran govt renamed ‘Benazir Income Support Programme’ as ‘Ehsaas’

    In yet another embarrassing development for the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the government’s lawyer has told the Supreme Court (SC) that Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) — a flagship project of the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) government for poverty reduction — was renamed as Ehsaas — a similar and much-boasted-about initiative by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan.

    As per the details, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan on Tuesday told the apex court that the data collected by BISP, “which had been renamed as Ehsaas”, was being used by the government to ensure that money reaches the poor amid lockdowns due to the spread of coronavirus.

    A five-member larger bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed and comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed was hearing the case regarding the closure of hospitals in the country during the global outbreak.

    During the course of proceedings, the AGP apprised the court that he had talked to Special Assistant to the PM (SAPM) on Health Dr Zafar Mirza regarding the court’s query about the closure of out-patient departments of hospitals, who wanted to give a briefing to the court on the steps taken by the government in the health sector. The government was taking steps to combat the virus, he added.

    Justice Umar Ata Bandial said the government had to help the people on the ground. “If there were local governments, the people would have been helped at the grassroots level,” he said, adding that the local government system in the country, including Islamabad, was dysfunctional.

    The CJP said the government’s job was not to keep employees on contract instead of appointing on a regular basis.

    The AGP said that the federal cabinet had discussed the matter.

    The CJP asked the government to appoint all employees on a regular basis in all the departments of hospitals. “Many cases were pending in the SC regarding the regularisation of employees,” he remarked.

    CJP Gulzar further said the government had appointed the employees on a contract basis, instead of recruiting them through the Public Service Commission.

    He said the parliament should be in session at all times to formulate new laws. The job of courts was not to make laws, he added.

    The CJP then asked who was being paid under the Ehsaas programme, to which the AGP replied that the government would give money to those below the poverty line.

    “How will the government know if money reached the poor or not?” the top judge question.

    “The data collected by BISP, which had been renamed as Ehsaas, is being used,” the lawyer said in response, adding that Ehsaas programme had been approved by a foreign agency.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    https://twitter.com/fatah_pak/status/1247592261300424708?s=21

    PPP REACTS:

    Reacting to the revelation, PPP Information Secretary Dr Nafisa Shah has expressed her shock and said that a law made by the parliament could not be changed.

    “Thousands of poor have been left without income support by the people who are haters of the late Benazir Bhutto,” she said in a statement and asked what kind of Ehsaas took away bread from the poor women of Pakistan.

    Shah said that this was the time when the neglected needed the most help, but the government had let them down.

    “BISP had given confidence to the poor women of Pakistan. By changing the name of this programme poor women have been deprived of their income. Imran Khan and his government have no right or authority to change the name of a programme established by [the] parliament,” she concluded.

  • PM Imran orders to publicly reveal names of officers ‘stealing’ BISP funds

    PM Imran orders to publicly reveal names of officers ‘stealing’ BISP funds

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has reportedly ordered to publicly reveal the names of 2,543 senior government officers who had added either their own names, or those of their spouses, to the list of beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

    In a tweet, Sania Nishtar, who serves as the BISP head as well as the special assistant to the prime minister (SAPM) on social protection and poverty alleviation, had last week said that 2,543 government officers of Grade-17 and above had availed the BISP and had now been “exited” from the programme.

    According to official data, which was also posted on Twitter by Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry, the highest number of government officials availing the BISP was from Sindh. Per the detailed breakdown, 1,122 officers of Grade-17 and above from the province had been BISP beneficiaries.

    The second highest number came from Balochistan, where 741 government officials were signed up for the poverty alleviation scheme. From Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 403 government officials availed the BISP, while 137 did so from Punjab.

    From the federal government, 62 officers availed the programme. Additionally, 1 officer of the Pakistan Railways, 22 of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and 49 of Gilgit Baltistan were also marked as undeserving recipients of the BISP. From within the BISP itself, six officers were listed among the beneficiaries.

    With the federal cabinet taking up the matter on Tuesday, PM Imran ordered to publicly reveal the names of the officers benefiting from the programme. “No leniency should be there for those who deprive the poor of their rights,” the premier reportedly said.

    “It is very regretful for us and damaging for the image of the country that officers of grade-17 to grade-20 officers were receiving funds meant for the poor deserving people,” SAPM on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan had said earlier in the day as she announced that a report on the matter would be presented to the premier in the federal cabinet meeting.

    She had also said that a strict action would be taken against those involved.

  • More than 2,500 govt officers were taking benefits from the Benazir Income Support Programme

    More than 2,500 govt officers were taking benefits from the Benazir Income Support Programme

    PTI government decided to delete over 800,000 names from the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) last month as it had come to their notice that some government officers and their families were also BISP beneficiaries. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Welfare and Poverty Alleviation Sania Nishtar explained that they did this by utilising forensic data as these people were ‘undeserving’.

    The more astounding part is that over two thousand top officials of provincial and federal governments were also BISP beneficiaries. According to details shared by ARY News, 2,543 government officials of Grade-17 to Grade-21 were receiving the BISP income support tri-monthly handouts, meant for the poor segments of society.

    Sania Nishtar confirmed the news on Twitter.

    Some officers were receiving money in the name of their wives and other members of families, which were registered in the list of the people entitled for income support.

    The highest number of undeserving beneficiaries were in Balochistan where 741 registered officials were registered.

    In Sindh, 342 officials of grade-18 gained profit from the scheme.

    The decision to exclude more than 800,000 people from BISP list was criticised by the PPP. Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto had demanded the government to retract from the decision.