Report sought on how ERRA funds were used

Mover of motion in NA panel says 177 schools destroyed in 2005 Abbottabad earthquake not yet rebuilt

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat on Tuesday sought details of funds spent by the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) on rebuilding of schools damaged in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa due to the 2005 earthquake.

Mover of the calling attention notice on the issue in the National Assembly Ali Khan Jadoon told the committee that 177 schools destroyed in the 2005 earthquake in Abbottabad district were not rebuilt despite lapse of 14 years.

He said $13 billion of foreign funding came to Pakistan after the massive earthquake and the committee should be given the details of projects and funds spent on reconstruction of the quake-affected areas.

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Committee Chairman Aminul Haque took notice of the fact that the ERRA chairman was not present in the meeting and directed that a notice of displeasure be sent to him.

“The ERRA chairman should come in the next meeting and inform the members about funding and projects,” said the committee chairman, deferring the matter till the next meeting.

Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Secretary Ali Raza Bhutta briefed the committee that the BISP maintained a National Socio Economic Registry (NSER) - a database of 27 million households.

He said the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) created the data after verification and proxy means test calculation with a paper based survey that was done in 2011-12 covering 87% of the population.

He said at global level socioeconomic registries were updated after five years, adding BISP had started a new survey to re-certify existing beneficiaries and capture migration patterns.

The new survey would be done with computer tablets and would use Geographic Information System (GIS) and end to end digital solutions, he added.

Bhutta said presently the data of socio-economic registry was used for federal and provincial programmes and programmes of health insurance, interest free loans, Punjab Khidmat card, Punjab local government card, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Insaf Card and Balochistan Food Department.

He said under the cash transfer programme, the total disbursement of BISP till June 30, 2019 was Rs709 billion. A stipend of Rs5,000 per quarter was given to female members of the 5.05 million beneficiary families.

Women who receive stipends spend it on buying of food, education of children and on medicine of their families, he added.

Bhutta said in the next stage, the data of BISP would be made live so that beneficiaries could be added or removed from the list.

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He said beneficiary families which had four-12 years old children were given grant of Rs750 per quarter so that they could send their children to schools. About 3.4 million children were benefiting from the scheme in 50 districts.

The secretary informed the meeting that every message sent to mobile users regarding BISP was fake and should be reported to it and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

He said the Ehsaas programme was meant to reduce inequality, invest in people and lift lagging districts by leveraging 21st century technology tools.

Member committee Ali Nawaz Awan said people of Islamabad had no quota for jobs in offices of the federal capital. He said at one time Islamabad had a population of 600,000 which had risen to 2.2 million and people needed jobs and other facilities.

He said the committee should be given report about the jobs given in government departments in Islamabad.

An official of the Establishment Division informed that the federal cabinet had instructed that Islamabad should be considered a separate entity for provision of jobs. He said 10% quota was allocated for residents of Islamabad in offices of the interior ministry. APP