New mechanism to make BISP ‘transparent’ on the anvil

Sania Nishtar says businessmen and individuals had been willing to donate for Ehsaas programme

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar on Wednesday said that the government would introduce a system in the next three months to ensure transparency in spending of corporate and private sector donations for the Ehsaas programme.

Dr Sania made these remarks while addressing the inauguration ceremony of 12th Annual CSR Summit 2020 organised by National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH).

The PM’s special assistant noted that businessmen and individuals associated with the private sector had been willing to donate for the Ehsaas programme.

“A web portal would be launched under the proposed arrangement to let the private sector know in what manner the donations are being spent for the welfare of the individuals,” she said.

Dr Sania said that in her capacity as being the in-charge of the government's programme for poverty reduction and social protection, she had been mandated with the task to come up with the required incentives.

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She said that the government was doing its best to ensure transparency in its projects.

Ehsaas programme comprises 134 different initiatives for the welfare of under-privileged and poor including the orphans and women.

The special assistant observed that the government had been making efforts to forge partnerships with the private sector to further these initiatives.

She said that the government was well aware that without the support of the corporate sector, it alone could not carry out the social welfare tasks.

For this purpose, the government was formulating a policy to offer incentives to the business entities who engage in philanthropic activities.

Meanwhile, lauding the philanthropic contributions of the Pakistanis, Research Fellow of Sustainable Development Policy Institute Dr Shafqat Muneer said that Rs500 billion was being annually spent in the country as charitable donations.

He stressed that these charitable donations would increase manifold if a proper policy was introduced that would bind the corporate sector to contribute to the CSR.

He noted that currently only companies associated with the petroleum sector were bound to spend 1% of their annual profit in the CSR activities, while there was no similar legal condition for any other industry in the country.

NFEH President Naeem Qureshi said that the CSR summit was being organised by a non-governmental organisation to discuss and appreciate the efforts being put by the corporate sector of the country.