National internship programme: Internees not paid stipends for 4 months

Officials say the delay is due to transfer of NIP to a new ministry.

ISLAMABAD:

The fourth batch of the National Internship Programme (NIP), about 2,500 people, has not been paid stipends for the last four months.

Initiated in 2007, the programme aimed to absorb the unemployed youth as internees in different government departments. Each was given a monthly stipend of Rs10,000. The fourth batch’s internship ended last month.

Officials familiar with the matter said the stipends were delayed after the programme was transferred from the establishment division to the newly-created Ministry of Professional Development and Trainings.

Initially running under the Ministry of Youth Affairs, the plan was devolved in the first phase along with provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment. After the devolution, the provinces refused to resume the programme, citing shortage of funds.

But the programme continued to run in the domain of federal government including Islamabad Capital Territory, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas under the establishment division. The programme was transferred to its new home about four months ago.

NIP Director General (DG) Muntazir Hussain said that some payments were delayed due to the transferring of the programme from the establishment division to the new ministry.

However, he added, they have made all the payments to those working in the government corporations up to December 2011, and the remaining would be soon released.

DG Hussain conceded that the payments of the internees working in government universities have been delayed due to an issue with their vendor numbers. “We have asked the universities to send us the details of internees so the ministry can release funds to the universities instead of releasing them directly to the internees,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2012.