Commerce Reporte
ISLAMABAD: Chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), Shazia Marri Thursday said that around 63 billion rupees have been disbursed among 2,500,000 flood-affected families.
She was speaking during a meeting with the Country Director, World Bank, Mr Najy Benhassine.
Shazia Marri highly appreciated the timely cooperation of the World Bank in terms of providing financial support to the flood affected people.
She said that quality food is being provided to 9, 00,000 women under the Benazir Nashonuma Programme with the support of the World Food Program.
The programme has so far benefited around 25,000 pregnant and lactating mothers, she conveyed.
About the Benazir Kafalat programme, the chairperson conveyed that the Kafalat stipend is being disbursed among the deserving families across the country, following a transparent procedure.
She said that privacy of data related to the information of deserving households is the top priority of BISP.
The Chairperson BISP emphasized that they have zero percent tolerance against any leakage or deduction from the money allocated for the most needy and poorest of the segments of the society and vowed anyone found involved in pilferage shall be sent behind bars.
Speaking on the occasion, the Country Director World Bank Najy Benhassine has appreciated government of Pakistan’s efforts particularly BISP’s role in serving the vulnerable population facing hard times.
He assured of the World Bank’s commitment for arranging more resources for the flood affected population. He also exchanged the idea of re appropriating some funds for the provision of specialized nutritious food to meet the further need of the flood affected areas.
The World Bank delegation was also apprised of inclusion of new mechanisms in the payment system and the additional layers of security as well as BISP commitment of introducing new interventions to provide relief to the people without any leakages.
Najy Benhassine appreciated the outreach and quantum of support extended by the programme and assured the Bank’s fullest support for the flood victims in Pakistan.
He noted that devastations of the floods in Pakistan are colossal and said that it is a shared responsibility of the international community to help Pakistan to cope up with the challenging situation.
He assured of full institutional support for Pakistan’s upcoming donor’s conference so that maximum assistance can be extended to the flood victims in Pakistan. He further assured WB’s technical support to BISP in data collected.
