June
5, 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.
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