ISLAMABAD: People who are involved in deceiving Ehsaas beneficiaries through fraudulent methods will be penalised.

This decision was taken during a meeting between Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General Dr Sanaullah Abbasi on Tuesday.

Both officials discussed how to strengthen coordination against fraudulent means that are used to deceive innocent people.

“In fight against corruption, Ehsaas is making every effort with the FIA to curb fraud and scams in the name of Ehsaas. In this regard, a series of meetings will be held every week between Ehsaas and FIA to exchange new insights of cases,” Dr Nishtar said. This weekly meeting will be attended by both Ms Nishtar and the FIA director general.

“We will lend full support to Ehsaas to punish fraudsters,” Mr Abbasi said.

The FIA cyber crime wing director has also been assigned the task to consolidate various cases along with updates against each issue and share these with Ehsaas before the next meeting.

Later, a follow-up meeting took place between senior officials of Ehsaas and FIA to share updates of cases that are under process with the FIA. Banking consultants and State Bank of Pakistan officials were also present in the meeting.

Furthermore, they discussed problems being faced by the Ehsaas team during disbursements.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2022