Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Fawad Chaudhry, shared the list of the count of government officers of Grade 17 and above expelled from the beneficiary list of Benazir Income Support Program, following the forensic investigation of the BISP beneficiaries.
Government officials from the federal, provincial, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan bureaucracy were registered in the BISP. Either these government employees or their spouses were receiving money under the BISP program.
Fawad Chaudhry shared the list in a Twitter post on Wednesday, 8th January. He shamed the government officers for illegally benefiting with the social welfare project that was introduced to support the poorest segment in the society by the former government of Pakistan People’s Party.
کوئ شرم ہوتی ہے، حیا ہوتی ہے۔۔۔ غریب ترین لوگوں کے حق پر اس بے حیائ سے ڈاکہ ڈالنے کو کیا کہا جائے۔ pic.twitter.com/IaeQytLrtx
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) January 8, 2020
Fawad Chaudhry claimed that these government officers defrauded the government and obstructed the delivery of maximum benefit of BISP to the deserving segment of society.
Government officers from Sindh recorded the highest number in the list followed by Balochistan, KPK, Punjab and Federal government.
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Dr. Shahbaz Gill, the former spokesperson of the Punjab Government, also tweeted the list and demanded Sania Nishtar, the Special Advisor to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Project, to take strict action against these officers for pretentious appearance in the list and make all names public.
میں @SaniaNishtar سے درخواست کرتا ہوں کے ان کے نام پبلک کریں۔ ان کے محکموں کو خط لکھیں ان سے یہ پیسہ واپس لیں۔ ہم جاننا چاہتے ہیں کہ کون بے حس لوگ ہیں یہ سب۔ https://t.co/fVs4l9Sypj
— Dr. Shahbaz GiLL (@SHABAZGIL) January 8, 2020
In the latest tweet, Dr. Sania Nishtar confirmed the list circulating on social media. Adding that legal action has been initiated against these government officers.
True: 2,543 exited from @bisp_pakistan are government officers/their spouses Grade 17 and above. We have written to Chief Secretaries and Ministries officially. At @bisp_pakistan disciplinary action is underway. Safeguards built for future under @Ehsaas_Pk governance reform
— Senator Dr Sania Nishtar (@SaniaNishtar) January 8, 2020
Forensic Analysis of BISP list
Last month, the federal government initiated a thorough investigation into the list of beneficiaries of BISP and more than 800,000 registered members under the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) were declared ‘undeserving’ said Dr. Sania Nishtar.
The beneficiaries were excluded following the revision of the BISP database following the decision taken in the cabinet meeting informed the Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan in the press conference.
Read more: Over 800,000 ‘undeserving’ beneficiaries excluded from BISP database
The review of the beneficiaries held after cabinet members argued that the members of the opposition party Pakistan People’s Party were benefitting from the program while the PTI members were being ignored.
Dr. Sania Nishtar asserted that a detailed audit of the beneficiaries held with the National Database and Registration Authority. The beneficiaries were assessed based on certain factors such as if the family of the beneficiary had any motorcycle or car, or people having more than 12 acres of land were undeserving of social assistance.
She asserted deserving people will replace the expelled members. Dr. Nishtar had shared data of the forensic analysis on her Twitter account and thanked the cabinet for supporting her decision to exclude the undeserving beneficiaries from the list. The exercise has enhanced the transparency of the social welfare project.
Dr. Nishtar addressed a press conference in the Islamabad on Thursday, 26th December. The ambit of forensic analysis was restricted to the spouse and children of the beneficiaries were not included in the assessment.
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The list of the excluded women is long: 127,826 recipients were the spouses of government employee; over 160,000 had traveled abroad once, while the spouses of more than 361,000 recipients had traveled abroad at least once, and almost 45,000 had a car registered in their name or the name of their spouse.