Shelved: Funds wasted as Insaf card programme closes

Underprivileged people in distress, hundreds involved in facilitating scheme jobless

PESHAWAR: The much-publicised Insaf card programme launched by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government to provide underprivileged people of the province with flour and edible oil at subsided rates has been closed after operating for a year.

The sudden closure of the programme also known as ‘Sastha Aata Ghee Khasoosi Package’ has not only distressed millions of people but has also caused millions of rupees that were spent over its advertisements to go to waste.

We received a notification last month from the concerned quarters to halt provision of commodities over Insaf cards to people,” Utility Stores Corporation Peshawar Zonal Manager Mukhtiar Khan told The Express Tribune.



Resource exhaustion

Insaf card programme was launched at a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on May 11, 2015. As per the programme, 0.97 million households and over five million people across the province were to benefit from the package.

The government was providing subsidies of Rs10 per kilogramme on 40 kilogrammes of flour and Rs40 per kilogramme on five kilogrammes of ghee.

For this purpose, a cellular network was installed at point of sale (POS) machines in over 430 utility stores.

An insider privy to the development told The Express Tribune, the government had planned to run the programme for five years and has spent millions of rupees on various components. “The POS machines which were purchased at Rs50,000 per head and installed in hundreds of utility stores across the province will now go to waste,” he said.

He added hundreds of daily wage earners and other employees facilitating implementation of the programme will lose jobs.

The manager of one of the utility stores in Peshawar told The Express Tribune hundreds of Insaf card holders approached him to purchase commodities but returned without receiving any supplies.

“Customers often fight with us for not giving them commodities and think we are deceiving them,” he said.

One of the card holders in Peshawar told The Express Tribune if the government did not have resources to run the programme, it should not have started it in the first place. “The government should continue it so poor people can benefit,” he added.

The numbers

According to the Annual Development Programme (ADP), around Rs8 billion was earmarked for the programme in the fiscal year budget of 2014-15 with the project named pro-poor initiative. Around Rs2 billion had been spent on the programme till June 2015.

In the fiscal year budget of 2015-16, the government again allocated Rs5 billion. The budget documents of 2016-17 revealed the cost of the programme was mentioned as Rs2.4 billion against the allocated Rs5 billion budget in 2015-16, of which around 2.2 billion has been spent. While Rs200 million has been allocated in the ongoing year budget, the programme has been closed.

Official verdict

While talking to The Express Tribune, Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Information and Higher Education Mushtaq Ghani said the programme has been closed since the government has started a health insurance scheme aimed to assist underprivileged people.

He said around Rs0.5 million will be provided to a family for health expenses per annum and they can go to any public sector health facility in the province. Ghani said over 10 million people will benefit from the scheme.

When asked why so much money was spent on media publicity for the programme if it was closed just after a year, he said the province has limited resources and cannot run both schemes at the same time.

In reply to a question Ghani said POS machines installed in over 430 utility stores will be auctioned by the government.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2016.