Benazir Income Support Programme: Nomads to be included among beneficiaries

Special BISP, NADRA teams will issue ID cards to nomads.

SIALKOT: The federal government on Wednesday decided to include nomads among the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) beneficiaries.

The decision was announced by BISP chairperson Farzana Raja who called it an ‘extra effort’.

A BISP official in Sialkot said that the programme also plans to ensure the issuance of Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) to these nomads. He said that the nomads were among the most deserving of income support, as they lived below the poverty line. He said that majority of the nomads did not have CNICs.

The BISP conducted a special survey of the nomad families, he said.

NADRA vans will then be sent to various localities with nomad population. Special joint teams of the BISP and NADRA have been formulated for this purpose who will issue the CNICs.

In Daska, a BISP team led by Mirza Abdul Shakoor, the tehsil team leader, and Muhammad Ishtiaq had already conducted a survey of some 23 nomad families residing in Gaga-Daska. The families comprised 131 people. It was found that only 10 out of the 52 adults possessed a CNIC.

They were given detailed information about the benefits of the BISP and CNICs. Aslam Khan Niazi, the BISP Gujranwala division regional director, supervised the survey.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th,  2011.