BAJAUR: Elders, political and trade leaders on Sunday rejected the proposed changes in distribution system of Benazir Income Support Programme, and demanded maintaining the existing village-based distribution of stipends.

They said the changes would affect about 90,000 women beneficiaries in Bajaur tribal district.

Talking to reporters, they said no one in the district would send their woman to the distribution points located several kilometres away from their village to collect the money.

Khar tehsil council chairman Said Badshah, Bajaur Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Lali Shah, All Bajaur Traders Association president Mohammad Hamid Sufi, ANP president Gul Afzal Khan, Qari Abdul Majeed of JI, PML-N district president Malik Gul Kareem Khan and others said the authorities had decided to reduce the BISP distribution points to only five across the district from the centres established in every village.

They said if the proposed changes in the distribution structure were implemented, the women beneficiaries would have to visit the distribution centres located several kilometres from their respective villages, which would create problems for them.

They said reducing the distribution centres to only five in the whole of Bajaur would also cause security issues as the BISP management would not be able to control such a huge number of beneficiaries at the reduced distribution points.

They demanded of the BISP management to maintain the old distribution system in the larger interest of the beneficiaries.

The elders and political leaders also called upon the district administration and local lawmakers to play their due role in convincing the BISP authorities to keep the old distribution system intact.

When contacted, an official at BISP’s local office in Khar, confirmed to Dawn about the proposed changes in the stipend distribution system.

He said under the proposed changes, there would be only five distribution points in the main areas of the district.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2024