MUZAFFARGARH: About 200,000 women have been on the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) beneficiary list in Muzaffargarh since 2008, and of them several hundreds have lodged complaints with the district BISP office that their cards have been blocked.

They say this time they could not receive cash through their cards, which showed their name had been removed from the database.

Mehr Mohammad Asif, BISP assistant director, said to this correspondent that 145,000 cards had been blocked in Punjab but no district office had been provided with data on the names removed from data. He said he was waiting for the list. He said the women who complained about the blockage of their cards, in his views, were deserving and below poverty level. He said those who did not deserve to on BISP list may not contact the office for face-saving.

Recently, the BISP removed 800,000 or so people from the social safety net programme for being not deserving after coming under scrutiny carried out by the National Database and Registration Authority.

Manzoor Mai, of the Muzaffargarh city, said that she had been a BISP beneficiary for the last eight years. Initially, she was getting the monthly dish-out from the BISP office and later on the department issued her an ATM card. Now, her card had been blocked and despite her several visit to the office, she could not get the amount. Manzoor Mai is a widow, living in a katchi abadi.

The BISP factor has been impacting Muzaffargarh district returned three PPP MNAs in the last election, which is believed to be due to BISP voters. Even before the launch of the BISP, the district elected five MNAs in 2008. Later on, in 2013, one PPP candidate became MNA.

This correspondent spoke to over one dozen BISP beneficiaries in Kot Addu and Muzaffargarh tehsils. They said they always voted for PPP candidates because of their attachment with the party. PPP MNA Mehr Irshad sial said that it was honour for him when he contested election from the PPP ticket, all BISP cardholders supported him in drove despite the fact his rival Jamshed Dasti had distributed cards in 2010 when he was in the PPP.

Some PTI MPAs said that during electioneering, several women refused to support them because of the BISP factor. They said though the social safety programmes had helped poor women, but its political implication could not be denied. They said the PTI’s Ehsaas programme would be able to defuse the BISP impact.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2019