Representational image. PHOTO: REUTERS
In this regard, the FIA asked the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to provide details of the government officers who had applied for cash grant under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and were withdrawing money through the biometric system.
About 938 government officers of grade-17 to grade-22 were among the BISP beneficiaries in Sindh out of which 50 officers benefitted directly while 888 took money in the name of their spouses.
In Punjab, 101 officers of grade-17 to grade-22 enjoyed benefits under the BISP fund -- 11 directly while 90 received fund through their wives.
Similarly, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa there were 343 officers of grade-17 to grade-22 who got the money meat for the poor -- 16 directly while 327 received money through their wives.
According to the document, 554 officers of grade-17 to grade-22 from Balochistan received the BISP fund --17 directly while 537 received the money through their wives.
Moreover, the names of 19 government officials of grade-17 to grade-22, who were among the BISP beneficiaries had been made public, Express News reported.
Among the beneficiaries are: Justice Mian Arif (grade-22), Muhammad Shiraz and Muhammad Saleem (grade-19) from the Education Department.
Government officials, whose spouses were receiving money under BISP are named as Muhammad Afzal (grade- 18) from Education Department, Qazi Kabir Ahmed (grade- 18) from Department of Public Health, Hukum Dada (grade-17) from Education Department, Mohammad Muskin (grade-17) of the Auditor General of the Department, Muhammad Yusuf and Riaz Ahmed Khan (grade-17) of the Higher Education Department.
There are 93 officials from the Income Tax Department of grade-1 to grade-16 registered in BISP. Grade-16 officers include Abdul Sattar, Ghulam Sarwar, Haji Zaheer Ali and Jafar Hussain whereas grade-14 include Khuda Buksh, Bakhtiar Ali and Abdul Hameed.
Meanwhile, a sub-committee of the Public Account Committee (PAC) directed the BISP to provide details of eight hundred thousand fraud beneficiaries who were receiving the stipend.
Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Secretary Ali Raza Bhutta said the BISP never said that those eight hundred thousand people fraudulently entered into the programme.
“Since the social economic status of these beneficiaries has changed over the period of time, therefore, they do not need Rs1,600 per month financial help from the BISP,” he told the committee.
The secretary, informing about the criteria adopted to discover the fraud beneficiaries, said the board made a decision on Dec 12 to analyse the database of a previous survey of the beneficiaries.
He said it was found that the spouses of those women who were receiving stipend were either travelled abroad or they obtained passport by paying executive fee or they obtained CNIC by paying executive fee which alarmed the board.
PPP Senator Sherry Rahman expressed dissatisfaction over the criteria adopted to single out the beneficiaries, saying the criterion was vague.
She asked to present details of the fraud beneficiaries to the committee in the best interest of transparency along with the reasons of removal and identification process.
Sanaullah Khan Masti Khel asked about the companies conducting a fresh survey to which the secretary apprised the committee that three NGOs -- RSPN, SDPI and Aurat Foundation -- were awarded the contract of conducting the fresh survey.
He also informed the committee that the contract of Rs8 billion was awarded to the three NGOs for the job.
The committee also directed to provide details of officers of Grade 17 and above whose wives were receiving BISP stipend.
(With additional input from APP, News Desk.)
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