The Sindh Government’s admission that its 28,549 officials continue to receive BISP (through their spouses) is neither a discovery nor a mistake. It is a case of an organised robbery at the taxpayers’ expense. Modern databases held by NADRA should have eliminated this fraudulent indulgence, with one stroke of keyboard, when 821,000 employees were found involved in this malpractice some years back. Sadly, the misconduct was allowed to continue and perhaps regularised as a new perk, called ‘misuse of spouse’ allowance.
It is painful and lamentable that the Sindh Government allows such illegal benefits to its officials but would insist on paying less than half the legal minimum wage (between Rs15,000 and 20,000) to its sanitation workers in SSWMB. In any developed country, a provincial chief executive with honour and self-respect would voluntarily resign at such an offensive misuse of state resources.
Naeem Sadiq
Karachi
