Benazir Income Support Program: A Mega
Rip-Off - It Is A Staggering Amount
18 June 2012
By Saeed Qureshi
In Pakistan's budget for the year 2012, the government
has allocated 70 billion rupees for the much-touted
Benazir Income Support Program (BISP). In dollars it
comes to 800 million. Thus far this program that was
kicked off in 2008 has been allocated some two billion
dollars to alleviate the economic hardships of the
poor families in Pakistan. It is a staggering amount.
However, there is a mounting proliferation of
complaints from the poor citizens, who have remained
deprived of the largesse of the BISP. We have seen
numerous footages on the television showing the crowds
of the hungry and indigent displaying their cards with
blatant grievances that all that they possessed were
the cards but not the money. There are also reports
about fake and forged lists of the recipients of this
elephantine philanthropic program. Those who have
their names entered into the list of the prospective
recipients, throng before the pigeon-holed windows for
the state philanthropy. It takes days for a needy
family as well as physical strength to get a paltry
sum of Rs. 1000 given to each household. Several
individuals are reported to have gone sick and
fatigued and injured following the long and arduous
physical distress they have to undergo to catch hold
of a check or cash. The cardinal question is what
would one buy and sustain in Rs. 1000 pittance that
the rich in Pakistan spend on giving tips or on buying
a pack or two of cigarettes.In the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan, the gulf between the rich and the
impoverished citizenry is widening by the day and by
every hour. The endemic and grinding poverty that has
now become a deep-rooted social evil, was seldom
addressed by the successive governments and the
elected representatives to be one of the leading
monstrous problems in Pakistan. There seldom launched
ground breaking programs and policies for the economic
uplift of Pakistan. Conversely, the magnitude of the
poor and indigent population is incessantly swelling.
Now a festering sore that bleeds all the time and is
turning into gangrene cannot be healed by a bandage
but by a composite surgical procedure. The incumbent
regime in Pakistan is placing a thin bandage of
negligible income support program to eradicate a
malady that merits a long term and stupendous plan for
its elimination or at least containment.But ostensibly
the motive of the incumbent rulers was not to
eliminate poverty or feed the hungry citizens. It was
primarily to make huge buck under the cover and guise
of a program that on the face should look like an
altruistic mission and geared for the betterment of
the financially downtrodden populace of Pakistan. Let
us presume that if this year's Rs 70 billion or the
past years several hundred billions would have been
channeled on creating jobs by setting up industries
and by providing plots of cultivable lands to the
resource-less, the endeavor would have been robustly
fruitful and looked earnestly pious. Even if the
government intends to spend this huge amount of money
on feeding the empty stomachs, then it could have been
executed in a transparent and accountable manner. Now
a Jialee (feminine of Jiala the nickname by which the
diehard adherents of PPP are known) Madam Farzana Raja
is handed over this onerous and gigantic task of
dispersing money in such a royal manner then what
propitious outcome could be expected.The commonly
prevailing perception of the people of Pakistan about
the PPP rank and file from the president to a local
party leader is exceedingly adverse.
Now imagine if a fox is guarding the henhouse what
would happen to the poor fowls. Farzana Anwar Raja is
one of those female cohorts of the PPP who would break
but not leave the party. And she is the chairperson of
the BISP.The so called smart card is used for
disbursement of the support money to the identified
needy individuals. The smart card is provided only by
three centers in the whole country. The smart card is
akin to a credit card with some additional
complications. It is utterly impossible for an
isolated, unlettered and unfamiliar village folk to
use it and get money. The definition of the needy
people as outlined in the charter of the program is
given as, "poorest people in Pakistan, including
families headed by widowed or divorced women, or
families with persons with disabilities or chronic
disease" Later on the displaced person were also
included in this list and with the funds allocation
was drastically revised upward. It is claimed by the
organizers of the BISP that the enrolled families are
paid cash assistance of Rs.1000 per month at their
doorsteps. It is also claimed by them that in order to
further strengthen the transparency, disbursement of
monthly cash assistance would now be carried out
electronically through branchless banking system.
So instead of door to door disbursement or through the
hard-to-follow smart card device, it would be sent
into the accounts by electronic transfer. Let us
ponder how many recipients could come to the cities ,
use the smart card and take out money. Or else how
many displaced villagers would own a computer to see
if the money had been transferred in their accounts.
It is like expecting from a new born to read the
Bible.The BISP brochure says that it has "established
an elaborate targeting mechanism for identification of
the poor through the introduction of Poverty Scorecard
and the nationwide survey along with creation of a
database accompanied by data validation and
verification".
Notwithstanding the tall claims of the authorities,
the bare fact is that this program has remained a
non-starter. The two billion dollars could have been
utilized on productive and far-reaching projects in
order to transform the lives of the people in real
sense and to prop up prosperity of the country.Thus
instead of radically redressing the economic
backwardness of the destitute population, the
government is creating a community of compulsive
beggars that would be looking towards this petty
relief as long as the government floats this spurious
program. The poor people should be made self-reliant
and enabled to generate enough incomes to live
honorably and with a modicum of tolerable living
standards. The example of Bangladesh is instructive
where the small loans were made available to the poor
families to be paid back from earnings of the cottage
and home based industries and agricultural output.
With that novel device not only that the grinding
poverty was bridled but a semblance of prosperity and
upswing of living standards was also set in motion.
The Grameen Bank founded some 30 years ago, by the
Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus is "credited with
lifting millions of people out of poverty through
offering small microfinance loans". This unique
concept brought self-reliance to many rural families
by enhancing their incomes from small business
ventures undertaken mostly by women folks.
The opposition in Pakistan and the parliamentarians,
the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee and
all patriotic Pakistanis should take note of this
disguised mega plunder that is shorn of a foolproof
mechanism for preparation of the lists of the indigent
Pakistanis as well as deliverance of the support
money.The huge funds being surreptitiously consumed in
this patently dubious scam should be diverted to loans
to the backward rural population to enable the people
to create income through setting up of small
manufacturing units. As stated earlier it is already
being done in Bangladesh and in several developing
countries where growth in productivity and increase in
income go hand in hand, elevating the level of
prosperity. The Supreme Court of Pakistan which is the
only reliable vigilante institution, ought to take suo
moto notice of this Tsunami of stealth corruption
masked by humanitarian relief ploy but which
inherently is for self-enrichment of the people in
power by robbing the national exchequer. This farce of
beefing up the insufficient earnings of the
impoverished families is also a safe way of bribing
and cajoling the party office bearers. But more than
that it is to keep a vote bank intact especially in
the rural Sind in favor of the PPP so that a twin
purpose can be achieved: the people vote for the party
and keep receiving the charity as long the PPP remains
at the helm of power.
©
EsinIslam.Com
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