Misplaced Priorities: ‘Ramazan package will be ineffectual’

LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Punjab general secretary Tanvir Ashraf Kaira said on Saturday that funds for the Ramazan Package would have been better spent had they been distributed among Benazir Income Support Programme beneficiaries. In a statement issued on Saturday, Kaira said five million families living in poverty would have benefited from such an initiative. Kaira said the list of programme’s beneficiaries had been carefully formulated and verified by a third party. He said the BISP had earned plaudits the world over for being an effective social security programme for the destitute. Kaira said various international financial institutions had also appreciated the vast reach of the programme.  He said a dismal fate awaited the package as profiteers would siphon a great part of the subsidised items to the open market with the connivance of public officials. Kaira said this would result in most of the items remaining unavailable for the disadvantaged. He said inferior quality of subsidised items was another challenge that would confront the people as it would compromise public health.  Kaira said the situation would be aggravated due to the absence of measures taken to enforce the availability of items at subsidised rates.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2015.