Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday directed for a third-party audit of the Ramazan Relief Package and instructed the authorities concerned to replicate the disbursement of the funds to the needy families through the "digital wallet system" in other government schemes.
Shehbaz praised the efforts of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), and tech institutions for ensuring transparency in the disbursement of the amount, said a press release issued by the Prime Minister Office Media Wing.
On March 1, ahead of the holy month of Ramazan, Shehbaz launched the Rs20 billion Ramazan Package, aimed at supporting 4 million deserving families – approximately 20 million people – across the country. Under the package, each family would receive Rs5,000 through digital wallets.
During a visit to the National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) on March 11, Shehbaz called for a review of the ongoing awareness campaign to improve its effectiveness, outreach, and to bridge the gap between disbursement and withdrawal.
Chairing a review meeting on Monday, Shehbaz stressed the need for making the awareness campaign ran by telecom companies and banks regarding the package, more effective and ordered them to prepare a comprehensive report in this regard.
"The amount under the Ramazan Relief Package is being transferred to the beneficiaries through a highly convenient and transparent digital wallet system. This model should be adopted for other government-run schemes," the prime minister told the meeting.
He said the package had been introduced across Pakistan, including Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir without any discrimination. He lauded the efforts of the SBP, NADRA, and tech institutions in ensuring transparency in the package. He also directed for a third-party audit of the package.
The meeting was informed that more than 1.5 million beneficiaries were contacted via telephone calls, while 63% beneficiaries had received the relief payment, so far. Officials said that 2,224 staff were deployed for package, while complete records were available about the distribution of all amounts.
The meeting was attended by federal ministers Rana Tanveer Hussain, Ahad Cheema, Attaullah Tarar, Shaza Fatima and Ali Pervaiz Malik, besides Special Assistant to Prime Minister Haroon Akhtar, and relevant government officials, and representatives of private companies related with the relief package.
Separately, speaking at the inauguration of Potato Seed Production and Aeroponics Complex, Shehbaz stressed the need for the federal and the provincial governments to work together to provide inputs to farmers at reasonable rates to strengthen agriculture sector.
"Our farmer is hard working and capable of working all weathers. Our farmer need best seeds, fertilisers and genuine medicines," he said. "We have to increase the share of agriculture in the economy. We have to enhance production of cotton, sugarcane and other crops," he said.
He emphasised that agriculture graduates should be provided suitable environment so that they could contribute to the development of the agriculture sector, which supported about 65% of the country's population in rural areas.
The prime minister appreciated researchers and scientists of the National Agriculture Research Centre (NARC) for their hard work to promote agriculture. He called for focusing on the local manufacturing of agriculture machinery and promotion of small and medium enterprises in the rural areas.
The complex at the NARC, Islamabad, is a flagship partnership between the Korea Partnership for Innovation of Agriculture (KOPIA) and Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) for certified potato seed production by applying advanced aeroponics technology.
The prime minister thanked Korea for helping Pakistan in setting up the complex for production of potato seed. "Korea has a strong economy and Pakistan wanted cooperation with it in different sectors," he remarked.
The prime minister also inaugurated the National Institute for Genomics and Advanced Biotechnology (NIGAB) at the NARC. It is an exclusive national institute dedicated to undertake agricultural research in all the three domains of life – plants, animals and microbes.
(WITH INPUT FROM APP)
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ