Dr Sania Nishtar urges ‘deserving’ to check eligibility for cash grant

12 million families to be awarded Rs12,000 each

Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Dr Sania Nishtar has urged the “deserving” citizens to check their eligibility for receiving cash grant under the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme by sending an SMS carrying their Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) number to 8171.

“12 million deserving families will get a cash grant of Rs12,000 each to buy daily commodities,” she said in a video message on Saturday.

The Ehsaas Emergency Cash programme has been launched in view of the economic hardships being faced by the vulnerable in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.

Giving the details of the welfare scheme, Dr Sania said that it was a one-time assistance and the government had allocated Rs144 billion for the purpose.

The SAPM affirmed that additional resources may be earmarked if the demand for the emergency programme was higher.

She assured the people that the deliverance of cash would be carried out in a transparent manner.

There will be three types of responses to peoples’ SMS seeking cash assistance – they will be informed if they are eligible, ineligible or need to contact their respective district administration.The employees of provincial and federal governments are not eligible for the assistance.

“The existing 4.5 million Kifalat beneficiaries, who are getting regular cash transfer of Rs2000 per month will be given additional Rs1,000 per month, hence they too will get a total amount of Rs12,000 rupees in four months’ time,” Dr Sania said.

“A higher eligibility or poverty threshold will be used to identify four million beneficiaries through the national socioeconomic database, while another 3.5 million people will come from districts,” she added.

In January, PM Imran had launched Ehsaas Kifalat Programme under which a stipend of Rs2,000 each is being given to seven million poverty-stricken women, through a foolproof and biometric-enabled cash disbursal mechanism across the country.

Dr Sania observed the list of deserving people was being prepared at the offices of assistant and deputy commissioners.

The deserving families will receive the cash assistance after biometric verification through the designated points of Habib Bank Limited, Bank Al-Falah, Easypaisa and E-Sahulat centres of NADRA across Pakistan.

On Friday, the government had launched the Ehsaas Emergency Cash application web-portal to check eligibility for the scheme directly through National Database Registration Authority (Nadra).

Dr Sania said those are asked through the SMS to contact district administration will now be able to register on the web-portal without actually visiting the district office.