Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday issued orders to reinclude “eligible persons” that were removed from the beneficiary list of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government.
The premier gave these directives in a meeting with Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Shazia Marri.
The PTI government had removed 820,165 names from the BISP database in December 2019, saying the beneficiaries were “undeserving”. It was later disclosed by the PTI government that more than 140,000 from this figure were those who were either themselves serving as government employees or were spouses of them.
The modifications in the BISP database were made after some PTI cabinet members expressed reservations that the supporters of the then opposition parties were taking benefits from the program. They argued that those who belonged to PTI were being ignored.
PM Shehbaz welcomed a proposal from Marri to formulate a formula for creating an appeal for the re-inclusion of those expelled from the BISP.
Marri also briefed him on the proposed procedure of the appeal. She lauded the prime minister for announcing aid for the deserving people of Balochistan under the program and offered scholarships to students.
