KARACHI, Jan 27: A Rs12 billion poverty alleviation programme for jobless youth of Sindh was launched by President Asif Ali Zardari along with his son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party, at a ceremony held at the Bilawal House on Friday.

According to officials, the programme titled ‘Waseela-i-Haq Sindh’ is aimed at creating a new middle-class in the province through provision of self-employment opportunities to 35,000 jobless youth in the age group of 19-35 years who have passed their secondary level (matriculation) examination.

President Zardari, who is the co-chairman of the party, formally launched the programme by pressing a computer button to initiate a draw and huge computer screens at the Bilawal House started displaying the names of 35,000 lucky youths selected by the computers randomly from among several hundred thousand applicants for the Rs300,000 interest-free loan each under the programme. The loan is meant for helping the jobless youth set up their own businesses.

The approved businesses range from transport to cattle-raising and from auto-workshop to pharmaceutical business. The loan is given to an applicant selected through the draw regardless of his/her religion, caste, creed or political affiliation, according to President Zardari’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar.

Mr Babar said that apart from being a matriculate, jobless and aged between 19 and 35, a candidate must come from a family that scored between 16 and 30 on the poverty scale devised by the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in accordance with the internationally accepted standards for measuring poverty to become entitled to inclusion in the draw. He said that the special scheme was devised under the directives of President Zardari with Rs12 billion contributed by the Sindh government out of its own budget.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also pressed another computer button to randomly select another batch of over 13,700 beneficiaries of the BISP. The draw is held after regular intervals. The beneficiaries of the normal BISP programme are also given Rs300,000 interest-free loans to start their own businesses but this programme is meant for even poorer families who scored not more than 16.17 on the poverty score card.

The ceremony was attended by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, BISP chairperson Farzana Raja, provincial ministers, parliamentarians, PPP leaders and workers, besides the beneficiaries drawn from across the province.

President Zardari also distributed cheques of the loan amounts among many Waseela-i-Haq beneficiaries.

Speaking at the ceremony, he suggested that the selected persons prefer cattle farming as a business which had a high return, adding that cattle were covered under insurance schemes.He observed that borrowers of small loans would honestly pay off their loans while those obtaining big loans mostly tended to default.

He said that the success and international recognition of the poverty alleviation programme named after Benazir Bhutto was not only a source of great pride and satisfaction for the government but also a source of personal satisfaction for him witnessing millions of beneficiaries being freed from inter-generational poverty trap and empowered in a real manner.

“I can think of no other better way of paying homage to Benazir Bhutto than handing over to the poor what is their due,” he remarked.

Mr Zardari said that it was a matter of pride for the nation that the programme had not only progressed and was blossoming into a comprehensive social safety net but also attracted worldwide appreciation for its transparency, objectivity and efficiency. To have reached more than six million families in a span of three years was indeed a big achievement, he added.

He advised BISP executives to start health protection services under a Waseela-i-Sehat scheme with life insurance provision for its beneficiaries at the earliest along with the vocational training for BISP beneficiaries under the ongoing Waseela-i-Rozgar scheme.