Pakistan Government Response to Victims of Terrorism

Pakistan Package for Victims of Terrorism Under Study, ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to work out an assistance package under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) for victims of terrorism.

Presiding over a meeting on the BISP and National Database Registration Authority on Friday, President Asif Ali Zardari said that assistance of professionals running charity organisations might also be sought to make the programme more effective and attract funds from international donors to help people affected by terrorism.

Presidency’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar told reporters that the president had appreciated extension of the BISP to Gilgit-Baltistan where more than 50,000 deserving families were being helped by the programme.

During her recent visit, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had announced $85 million for the BISP.

‘The world community recognises and appreciates the usefulness of the programme and the way it is being managed,’ the spokesman said.

The president stressed that success of such initiatives required complete transparency and impartiality in the process of selection of beneficiaries and disbursement.

BISP chairperson Farzana Raja informed the meeting that cash grants, Waseela-e-Haq, poverty surveys, Benazir Smart Card, mobile banking, health/accident insurance, vocational training and emergency relief packages were major components of the programme.

‘The transparency in cash grants is being ensured through functional separation mechanism and individual payment mechanism details are available on BISP website,’ she said.

Ms Raja said that under the Emergency Relief Package, Rs28 million had been paid to 3,965 families hit by terrorism in Fata and Bajaur. An amount of Rs26 million had been paid to 3,729 families affected by earthquake in Balochistan, she added.

She said that an agreement had been signed with the United Bank Limited to make payments to the people who had been displaced from Swat and Malakand.

An amount of Rs3.82 billion, she added, would be distributed among them by Dec 5. Nadra chairman Ali Arshad Hakeem said the authority was engaged in various projects and also assisting some foreign countries.

The projects include machine readable passports, identity cards and civil registration, electronic and highway toll collection, IDP registration and cash disbursement, kiosk and e-Sahulat and BISP.

He said that Nadra was assisting Sudan, Kenya, Bangladesh and Nigeria and the UNHCR in biometric refugee registration system.

The authority, he said, was also working with the BISP and the World Bank in developing a poverty database in the country based on the bank’s poverty scorecard which employed proxy mean testing based on 13 variables.