ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed officials of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) to make public names of all those government officials who had managed to get themselves registered among beneficiaries of the social safety net, which is aimed at providing financial support to the deserving poor and destitute.

“We cannot forgive the people who deprived the poor of their rights. The names of the looters should be made public,” PM Khan said after the BISP officials submitted a list of the ‘undeserving government officials’ to him on Tuesday.

The prime minister showed anger over such irregularities and ordered that the names of these “corrupt officials” be disclosed.

“Their punishment is that their identities should be revealed to the public,” Mr Khan said.

He said that the government would not show leniency towards the officials who had usurped the rights of the poor.

BISP chairperson Dr Sania Nishtar disclosed in a tweet last week that 2,543 officers of Grade 17 and above had got themselves or their spouses registered amongst the beneficiaries of the social safety net. “True: 2543 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,” Dr Nishtar tweeted.

Of the 2,543 beneficiaries removed from the BISP, around 1,122 officers were from Sindh, 741 from Balochistan, 403 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 137 from Punjab, 62 officers of the federal government ministries, 22 from Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 49 officers from Gilgit-Baltistan. Besides, six BISP officers, too, were listed as ‘undeserving recipients’ of the financial support.

Earlier on Dec 24, the federal government had given approval to the removal of 820,165 beneficiaries from the BISP database, describing them as “undeserving”.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2020