QUETTA: National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri has said that as poor people are being provided financial assistance for the first time in the history of Balochistan, over 50,000 deserving families of the province would benefit from the Ehsaas cash relief programme being carried out by the federal government.

He said this during his visit to the Ehsaas Centre at Ayub Stadium here on Sunday. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had launched this programme to provide relief to daily wage earners and other poor people who had been badly affected due to the lockdown enforced in the country to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Mr Suri said that to avoid any irregularity in the distribution of Rs12,000 stipend among the deserving families the entire system had been computerised and a strategy had been evolved to make the distribution transparent.

A large number of women registered under the Benazir Income Support Progarmme (BISP) had gathered at Ayub Stadium to receive stipend under the Ehsaas programme. Local administration had made strict security measures to avoid any mishap.

Briefing the deputy speaker, Focal Person for the Ehsaas Programme Sania Safi said that the programme had been launched in Quetta where 14 cash distribution centres had been established in different areas.

She said that financial assistance would be distributed in three phases.

“In the first phase, stipend will be given to the registered beneficiaries of the BISP. Those who request for help from mobile phone through SMS will be benefited in second phase while needy and poor people will be given funds through reserved quota of deputy commissioner of Quetta in the third phase.”

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2020