‘Ehsaas’ for Sania

Of the six members of his team fielded by the Kaptaan to brief the media on the performance in the two-year innings, the person who performed the most was given the least amount of time. Whether it was seniority, gender or happenstance, one knows not. But it was certainly unfortunate, especially for a government that has mostly shown good intentions that might pave the way to you know where. While mentioning the lesser qualifications of the other ministers and confusing Harvard for Boston in the case of the Finance Adviser, Planning Minister Asad Umar could not recall any of Sania’s impressive academic achievements. After the adoption of Millennium Development Goals in the early 2000s, the then government constituted an Advisory Committee to formulate Pakistan-specific targets and oversee their implementation. As chair, this writer had the pleasure of welcoming Sania as a member and also the chair of the thematic committee on health, which all of us in the committee thought was the best use of a PhD in Medicine from Kings College, London. Later, I am told, she was honoured with a DSc by Kings. One remembers her as a focused, serious and a problem-solving professional.

These qualities were visible in her delivery of cash in the hands of those in dire and urgent need in the worst phase of the corona pandemic. True, the long queues could have been avoided by the use of the elaborate system of mobile cash transfers. Perhaps the visibility was forced upon her to gain political mileage. However, she was able to keep the politicians away from on-ground distribution, despite protests and pressures that, by some accounts, brought tears in her eyes. She stood up and worked to make Ehsaas the only component of the Rs1,240 billion Corona Relief Package that fully utilised its allocation of Rs144 billion and provided immediate cash relief of Rs12,000 each to 12 million families. In the current year, the allocation has risen to Rs203 billion and the target families to be reached has been increased to 16.9 million. No wonder, Dr Nishtar is able to claim that the programme is the country’s biggest-ever social safety net. However, it wasn’t launched 15 months ago, as she stated at the presser. It was launched by the PPP government. The PML-N government continued it with improvements. The PTI government has done well to keep it going, with more transparency and effective leadership. Policy continuity has contributed to success. Compare it with the pace of progress on all the new initiatives of the PTI government. Most are in the learning stage and all are taking time to take off. Imagine for a moment that there was no base provided by the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), the cash delivery during the pandemic would have been an utter disaster. No harm having some “Ehsaas” for Benazir, dear PTI, as you must for Sania.

It is time to move from the limited-coverage social safety nets to a comprehensive system of social protection. Zobeida Jalal, Shahnaz Wazir Ali and myself were together in a Working Group on Social Protection in 2007 that had almost reached there in terms of what needs to be done. But then things happened as they always do in this country to deflect attention from real issues faced by the wretched of the earth. All that happened was the publication of a routine report by the World Bank, “Social Protection in Pakistan”. Luckily for Sania, Kaptaan is worried about pensions. Perhaps the time is ripe for a single social protection window for all.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2020.

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