KASUR, Oct 15: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) workers have protested the method of distribution of forms for the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) calling it “flawed” one and demanding its immediate review.

As forms are being distributed by the MNAs, PPP workers bemoaned that they are being ignored in the constituencies from where members of political parties other than the PPP returned to the National Assembly during the Feb 18 general elections. They also demanded that a quota for PPP workers should be reserved in the programme named after their “beloved leader”.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, PPP city president Yaseen Lumberdar and general-secretary Dr. Muhammad Akram said that they were receiving complaints of “party-based” discrimination from all the 40 units of the PPP in NA-139 as MNA Sheikh Muhammad Waseem of the PML-N was giving preference to workers of his party instead of Benazir’s.

Dr Akram said that the MNA had been given charge of distributing 8,000 BISP forms to deserving families in this constituency but his “agents” were obliging their near and dear ones, violating the criterion fixed by the government to support the genuinely poor families.

Dr Akram alleged that Waseem’s influencing such a large number of families in this area would add to the political woes of the PPP in the forthcoming general elections, especially in Kasur city, as it had already lost both Punjab Assembly and National Assembly seats there during the 2008 general elections.

He called the procedure of distribution of forms entirely “defective” and urged President Asif Ali Zardari to revise it and allocate a quota for the party workers instead.

He said that though no party-based discrimination in distribution of BISP forms could be seen floating on the surface and theoretically it was an ideal system, practically it was a sheer failure as they have received several complaints and not from the city constituency alone, but from other areas as well where the PPP could not shine.

Yaseen complained that flawed system of distribution of BISP forms was a sheer injustice with devoted workers who had been sacrificing for the party during long eras of dictatorships.

When contacted, MNA Waseem rejected the discrimination allegations and said that all deserving families were being treated “alike”, leaving aside all political affiliations and party barriers.