BISP service providers go without payment

Since Nawaz came to power, 50 vocational trainers have not received their due


Sehrish Wasif December 19, 2017
PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: The fate of more than 50 service providers and over 20,000 beneficiaries associated with the Waseela-e-Rozgar Scheme of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) to secure a payment of Rs808 million hangs in the balance since 2013 due to the negligence of federal government.

According to documents available with The Express Tribune, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) after a thorough investigation in September 2016 had cleared the case whereas the civil court also gave verdict in favour of BISP. But still the payments are in the doldrums.

PPP leader availing BISP benefits

Talking to The Express Tribune, service providers said, “We cannot explain the misery we are undergoing due to the delay in payments. We have borrowed money to pay the rent of our houses, feed our families and pay school fees of our children.”

The claimants said they were oppressed by the authorities whenever they tried to receive their payments during the last four years. They had protested in front of BISP headquarters multiple times and threatened to self-immolate but to no avail. “Though BISP higher-ups claim they are making landmark achievements for poverty alleviation and ensuring food security nationally and internationally, it will not be wrong to say that they have brought us on the roads, forced us to beg and put our families to starvation,” they said.

The Waseela-e-Rozgar Free Vocational and Technical Training Scheme, a part of the BISP, was started by PPP government in memory of the late Benazir Bhutto. The scheme funds the aspiring candidates to acquire vocational training that is helpful in gaining employment leading to a successful career. The programme utilizes the services of private sector that has spent millions to impart training to the deserving and needy. But since the time Nawaz government has been in place, neither a monthly stipend of Rs6000 to nearly 25,000 trainees nor any payment to the service providers has been made.

Service providers said, ‘Several millions have been spent from our savings on traveling from our home to Islamabad and fighting legal battles, but we have not succeeded in getting the payments released.”

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When contacted, BISP chairperson Marvi Memon asked Express Tribune to talk to the secretary about the issue. The secretary, on calling, referred to another BISP official.

However, the BISP officials say the payment issue has been procrastinating since 2013. Performance of service providers was assessed through different methods and payments have been made to those who fulfill the criteria. “Now the deserving cases will be presented before the Liability committee whose members have yet to be approved by the higher-ups,” said the official.

The official further said once the deserving cases are approved by the BISP board members the payments will be made.

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