LAHORE, Nov 4: Of 25,000 applications for assistance forwarded to the Pakistan Baitul Maal by politicians, including the prime minister, 50 per cent have been rejected after verification.

Baitul Maal Amin Brig Mohammed Sarfraz (retired) said this while talking to newsmen at Meet-the-Press programme of the Press Club here on Tuesday. He said the applications were rejected because the people seeking financial assistance did not deserve it. Everyone with an income below Rs3,000 to Rs4,000 was a deserving person for grant of financial assistance, he said.

He said the Baitul Maal was established with the noble objective of providing relief to the suffering humanity in 1992, but serious irregularities were committed during its organization and operation during the tenure of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. Eighty to 90 per cent people were recruited for running its administrative and financial affairs on an ad hoc basis without observing the prescribed procedures. Those recruited in BS-16 were promoted to BS-17 and 18 within months.

He said the Baitul Maal operations had to be suspended for a few months for reorganization and probe into corruption rampant in it and its transformation into an apolitical institution when he took over in May, 2000. Cases of doling out funds without verification during the Nawaz and Benazir tenures had been referred to NAB and 155 officials up to Grade-19 involved in corruption had been dismissed following inquiries during the past three years, and he had refused to reinstate 55 of these despite the recommendation of the prime minister.

He said on computerization of the Baitul Maal record, some 30,000 to 40,000 people were found to have got themselves registered for financial assistance in more than one province. Of these 23,000 had been deregistered after investigation and new people would be registered in their place. The record had now been computerized and offices of the institution linked through internet.

He said the programme launched for providing food support to the poor at a cost of Rs2.5 billion per annum in August, 2003, had been extended for two years because of its efficacy. A database 1.212 million poorest of the poor households had also been established for effective implementation of the programme.

He said 100 houses had been completed at a cost of Rs23 million in Larkana Housing Scheme launched during the Benazir tenure and abandoned after her exit from power. Of these, 10 had been allotted to destitute widows free of cost and the remaining 90 to the deserving poor at the subsidised cost of Rs50,000 each recoverable in 60 easy instalments of Rs750 per month. Prime Minister’s adviser Neelofar Bakhtiar had handed over the keys to the allottees on Oct 17.

He said the poor, widows, destitute women, orphans and disabled people were being supported by the Baitul Maal by providing assistance for education, medical treatment and rehabilitation in case they were not benefiting from programmes like Zakat and the provincial Baitul Maal. They could apply for financial assistance only once a year, but the assistance for medical treatment, including surgery, could be provided along with it. The government servants were not eligible for assistance under the programme. A sum of Rs128.294 million had been disbursed among 14,878 people under the individual financial assistance programme during 2002-3.

He said the PBM had also paid Rs1.8 million subsistence to 6,359 people of Raheela and Kalpur Bugti tribes of Balochistan when they were displaced due to a tribal strife in 1992. As many as 360 affectees of a breach in Rohri Canal were provided an assistance of Rs5,000 each in September last year. Similarly 600 rain-hit families in Badin, Sanghar and Hyderabad districts of Sindh and 400 families in Jafferabad and Naseerabad in Balochistan were provided a financial assistance of Rs3 million and Rs2 million, respectively, at the rate of Rs5,000 per family. Financial assistance was also provided to the people injured in a blast in Diamir district in Northern Areas.

He said the Pakistan Baitul Maal had also established 36 child rehabilitation centres in 1995 and another 18 community education and action centres for child labour education and rehabilitation in collaboration with the International Labour Organization in 2000. Another 14 centres were being established this year. At present, 6,240 students from carpet, bangles, brick-kiln and tanneries were enrolled in these centres and 2,021 had passed out. The children were paid Rs10 daily and their family Rs300 per month as their wage compensation during their period of education. The number of schools will be increased to 100 by the end of next financial year. As many as 12 vocation schools had also been established for girls.

He said the PBM infrastructure had also been used by the World Food Programme for distribution of food stamps of Rs1.387 billion among forest workers in the NWFP, Balochistan and Azad Kashmir to encourage plantation since 1994-95. It had also been decided to distribute Rs50 million among the NGOs annually on a capital cost sharing basis. A sum of Rs353 million had been distributed among 759 NGOs from 1992 to June, 2002, and Rs11.4 million were released for 34 projects last year.

He said the Baitul Maal was also providing food assistance to 530,000 school girls in 29 high poverty districts of the country under the 3.6 million Tawana Pakistan Programme launched in 2002-3. Girls in 4,221 schools were receiving food assistance, and another 1,733 schools would start receiving it under the programme which would continue for four years and a half.

He said the Pakistan Baitul Maal planned to set up an institute of burns and plastic reconstructive surgery in the Punjab and a network of dialysis centres in collaboration with the NGOs. Establishment of a Darul Kafala for old people in every province and construction of Sasti Bastis on the pattern of Larkana Housing Project was also under consideration, he said.