ISLAMABAD: A total of 10,271 families of earthquake-hit Harnai district of Balochistan have been paid Ehsaas Emergency Cash (EEC) assistance of Rs12,000 each which the federal government had announced a month ago.

A total of 15,398 families have been affected and they would receive the cash assistance. Accordingly, the process of disbursement is under way.

Senator Dr Sania Nishtar said that the delay in reaching out to all affected people was because most of the people were still unaware of the relief package.

However, some people said they had gone to collect the payment but were unable to do so because of CNIC expiry, biometric failure or non-presence of family registration in the database. “We conducted a midcourse review district-wide and results of the quick telephonic survey revealed that most of the people who had still not received their Ehsaas cash of Rs12,000 were unaware of the programme,” said Dr Sania Nishtar.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2021