Re-election pitch: We can work if bureaucracy allows us to, says president

Launches self-employment scheme for youth in Sindh.

KARACHI:

The president pitched a re-election bid for the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party on Friday, launching an interest-free loan scheme for Sindh’s unemployed youth.

“We can build a new Pakistan, if the bureaucracy allows us to work for five-years,” the president said, in an apparent jibe at the country’s ‘establishment.’

He added that he convinced Russia, China and Turkey to trade with Pakistan in local currency.

“My own state bank, however, was sceptical about the idea because it has the mindset of getting aid and preventing a new approach,” he added.

Self-employment scheme

“The development of Pakistan is our right and prime responsibility,” the president said at the launch ceremony of the Waseela-e-Haq Sindh at Bilawal House.

The scheme aims at creating a new middle class in the province by providing self-employment opportunities to 35,000 youth between the ages 19 and 35, who have at least passed secondary school examination and are unemployed, the president said. Those selected by the random draw will be provided Rs300,000 in interest-free loans each to set up their own businesses, he added.

The president also offered advice for the beneficiaries – he urged them to invest in cattle farming which not only has a higher rate of return, but are also covered under an insurance scheme.

“Let those who merely raise hollow slogans witness today how change is brought about through the creation of a new middle class,” the president said.

The Rs12 billion scheme was devised under the president’s directive and financed by Sindh government from its own budget, said the president’s spokesperson Farhatullah Babar.

To be eligible for the interest-free loan, the applicant’s family had to score between 16 and 30 along the poverty scale devised by the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in accordance with internationally-accepted standards for measuring poverty, he added.

BISP programme

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also launched the computerised draw of over 13,700 new beneficiaries of the normal BISP programme.

Recipients of the normal programme are also given interest-free loans, but are only eligible if they score below 16 on the poverty scale.

Financial empowerment of our women would not only give them confidence to lead better lives but also save them from exploitation, the president said.

He also called upon BISP to start health protection services for its beneficiaries.

(With additional input from APP)

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2012.