ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: The government has decided to enhance the ambit of Benazir Income Support Programme from existing 3 million to 4 million poorest of the poor households throughout the country.

“We have extended the facility to give support to maximum families, who are hard hit by over 24 per cent inflation,” National Coordinator Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Dr Qaiser Bengali told Dawn on Tuesday.

Poor family would be given Rs2000 after every two months under the scheme to the people of four provinces including federally administered tribal areas, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Northern Areas.

Under the scheme, 1,640,000 families would get the assistance in Punjab province followed by 776,000 in Sindh, 520,000 in NWFP, and 312,000 in Balochistan.

Moreover, 160,000 families will get assistance under the scheme belonged to Fata, 48,000 in the federal capital territory and 80,000 minorities across the country.

He said that every effort has been made to make the scheme more transparent and apolitical. “I have no office or staff at the stage of evolving of the programe. I have done it entirely alone,” Dr Qaiser claimed.

He said it is the third largest allocation in the current budget and constitutes 0.3 per cent of the GDP adding it will cover up to 12-14 per cent of the population in low income bracket in the entire country, including Fata, Northern Areas and the AJK.

For families earning Rs5000 per month, the Rs1000 payout will amount to a 20 per cent increase in their current purchasing power, he elaborated. He said that those people who were already getting more than Rs6000 per month would automatically not qualify for the scheme.

A letter sent to the legislators of the upper and lower houses by the office of the national coordinator of the Benazir Support programe, a copy of which was made available to Dawn, narrated the detailed procedures for availing the facility.

The family defined under the scheme as wife, husband and children. Parents or married sisters or daughters living in the same house will classify as another family and may qualify separately for payment. And only one adult female member from each qualifying family will be eligible to apply.

The eligible family will be a female having CNIC, monthly income is less than Rs6000, widowed/divorced without adult male members in the family, any physically or mentally retarded person in the family and any person suffering from a chronic disease.

The family cannot avail itself of the facility if any of its members is in employment of government, semi-government, authority, department or armed forces or drawing pension from either of these offices; receiving any post-retirement benefits from any department or agency or a family member owns more than three acres agriculture land or residential house/plot of more than eight square yard (3 marlas).

Those members are also not entitled where any member of a family is receiving income support from any other sources; family posses machine readable passport; possess national identity card for overseas Pakistanis and where any person has account in foreign bank branches.

Application forms filled in by the applicant will be verified by any one union councilor and by the MNA/Senator according to the criteria. MNAs/Senators will collect completed and signed forms and mailed them via post office to NADRA in pre-addressed envelopes provided by BSIP.

The NADAR will verify the applications and prepare a final list, which will be forwarded to Pakistan Post. Those not meeting the criteria will be excluded.

Pakistan Post will prepare money orders accordingly and deliver the amount of Rs2000 every alternative month to designated female members of identified families on production of CNIC copy.

Third party validation of all recipients will be carried out. If the information provided in the form is found to be incorrect, the name of the recipient will be de-listed from the programme and the benefits withdrawn, he added.