Fiza Gilani Appreciates the Role of Benazir Income Support Program and Pakistan Baitul Mal in Poverty Reduction

Islamabad: Poverty reduction is one of the foremost goals among Millennium Development Goals and present democratic government of PPP has made a number of economic and social interventions like land entitlements in the name of women flood affectees in the province of Sindh and cash grants through Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) and Pakistan Baitul Mal (PBM) to ameliorate the conditions of the poorest of the poor, especially the women segment of society, in the country.

Honorary Goodwill Ambassador for Women Empowerment, Fiza Batool Gilani, expressed these views while talking to officials of Planning Commission and Benazir Income Support Program during a briefing session in Islamabad. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, Begum Shehnaz Wazir Ali and Secretary Human Rights, Saeed Ahmed Alvi, were also present during the briefing.

It was told during the briefing that several factors like floods of 2010 and 2011, worsening international economic condition, the law and order situation and the flight of foreign direct investment have been responsible for the economic slide in the country. However, despite these factors, Pakistani economy has started picking up lately and economic indicators have showed growth in the economy. Since economic growth rate and poverty are directly related so with the increasing of economic growth, poverty will start receding.

The Goodwill Ambassador was briefed that Benazir Income Support Program has initiated a number of measures like Wasila-e-Haq, Wasila-e-Rozgar, Wasila-e-Taleem and Wasila-e-Sehat through which the poorest of the poor have been provided with social security net. Direct cash support to the poor families, especially the womenfolk, has been instrumental in providing them with relief from economic hardships.

The Goodwill Ambassador emphasized that surveys for gauging poverty, health, education etc. indicators and statistics must be conducted on regular basis for their proper utilization at the policy-making level and for on-ground work. She appreciated the surveys conducted by BISP for addressing the issue of poverty across the country.

During the briefing, Begum Shehnaz Wazir Ali emphasized that it is critical for economic recovery that women are made the part of the work force. In order to prove her contention, she gave examples of countries where economic breakthrough has been made possible due to this factor.

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