These days you often get lot of negative publicity directed toward Pakistan. Various self serving "Think Tanks" have garnered their own figures and built oft repeated claim of Pakistamn being failed state. So let us look at what makes Pakistan just another Somalia on the Indus Basin.
No.1 - Social Security
Pakistan is the only country in South Asia that provides income support to poor familes along the lines of welfare support found in wealthy Western European countries. The foundation of welfare state was established back in 1980 under the Islamic Ordinance of Zakat which required between 2.5% to 5% tax on the wealthy that went to widows and needy. By 1983 upto Rs2.5 billion was being disbursed to about 4 million people. However the system was inefficient and the Zakat Committees assigned to select familes were accused of favoritism. Despite this it was still the begining of social welfare and many a widow or elderly with no family to support them survived on the Zakat payments.
However in 2008 Pakistan government launched the ambitious national
Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) which is non-conditional cash payment every month as income support for the poor. The amount set for 2015 is
Rs1,500 which allows a family of 5-6 to buy enough
flour to last
25 days. All claimant's recieve
BISP ATM Cards through which the money is debited to their accounts. A additional premium of
Rs1,200 is added to mother's for each child in primary school to the maximum of 3 children.
Eligibility
In order to be eligible for cash payments under BISP, families must earn less than RS 6,000 per month; equivalent to $67.[1] Further eligibility requirements stipulate that:
- Families must have a female applicant holding a valid ID card
- An individual applicant must be a widowed or divorced female without male family members
- Eligible families include those with physically or mentally disabled individuals
Families deemed ineligible for cash payments through BISP include those with:[1]
- Members employed by the Pakistani government, army, or any other government-affiliated agency
- Members drawing a pension or receiving post-retirement benefits from the government
- Family members owning more than 3 acres of farmland or more than 80 square yards of residential land
- Members receiving income from other sources
- Members holding a machine readable passport
- Members with a National Identity Card for Overseas citizens
- Members with a bank account excluding microfinance banks and those catering to low-income families
The allocation for the financial year 2014-15 is over $1 billion ( Rs100 billion ) to provide cash assistance to 5.5 million families, which constitutes almost 20% of the entire population. The Program aims to cover almost 40% of the population below the poverty line. The $1 billion forms significant amount of the federal budget this does though indicate a change from security state to welfare state.
Stats and facts
BISP provides direct financial assistance to poor families through monthly cash payments to buy essential household items such as food and medicine, and to send children to school. A
female representative of the family receives these cash transfers directly on the BISP debit card, helping them to participate in domestic decision-making.
Payments are currently being made to 5 million families (benefiting
30 million individuals). The BISP income support is expected to reach
50 million or 7 million familes by 2017. The introduction of the BISP debit card has helped the cash payments reach the poorest and most vulnerable.
BISP conducted countrywide Poverty Survey/Census for the first time and collected the data of almost 180 million people and 27 million households using GPS devices for the informed decision making (to cope with natural disasters and other emergencies). The poverty census completed in record time of one year across all Pakistan including Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA. The World Bank and UK DFID was involved in the preparing the structure of BISP working with Pakistan government.
Overall the cross party consensus is that the BISP named in honour of the late ex PM Benezir Bhutto who was killed by Taliban in 2007 has been extremely succesfull. There were problems as in 2008 the monthly payments were made via Post Office but soon reports came that Post Men were charging money from the poor female claimants to cash money. Therefore BISP Debit card was introdiced and now all claimants recieve their payments through the BISP Debit card.
View attachment 230229
Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) ran by a independent federal authority — patronized by President and Prime Minister and managed by a high powered Board headed by its Chairperson —through the Act of the Parliament in 2010. The present minster of BISP is Ms Marvi Memon.
More than
7 million beneficiary families have been identified through
Poverty Scorecard Survey for disbursing
Rs1500/month through ‘branchless banking system’ (Smart Card, Mobile Phone, Debit Card). The focus on poverty alleviation through
empowering the
women, BISP has so far disbursed more than
Rs346 billion to the deserving and needy of the country with relative transparency in about 4 years time through the elected representatives of the people, regardless of their party affiliation. Various studies done thus far show that the system is delivering to the end customer- the poor claimant.
At
12 per cent of the
minimum wage, the cash transfer will remain too low to distort the incentive to work or create a ‘dependency culture’. And to ensure effectiveness, the poverty scorecard survey will need to be rerun every few years.
Further improvements now in the pipeline are Waseela-e-Taleem Program, initiated with generous help of the World Bank and DFID, to send 3 million children to school through additional cash incentives of Rs.200 per child. Payments at the moment do not require claomants to send children to school but this is about to change as attendance below 80% will result in reductions of BISP.
Chart from the
Economist showing the relative position of Pakistan's on spending on welfare compared to some other countries. As can be seen Pakistan is now spending nearly
16% of GDP on
social welfare secondly only to Malaysia at 26%.
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A ‘welfare state’ for Pakistan’s poor? - The Express Tribune
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Pakistan strives to become a welfare state
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Pakistan: reaching the poorest through cash transfers - Case study - GOV.UK
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Social Safety Nets and Poverty in Pakistan (A Case Study of BISP in Tehsil Mankera District Bhakkar)
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http://www.economist.com/news/asia/...fare-states-spread-themselves-thinly-widefare
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Benazir Income Support Programme - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I have tried to only include reputable links above. Some are from United Kingdom's DFID, others from Economist and one from research paper on BISP. Without a doubt BISP has been a relative success and one of the few great things Pakistan has achieved in the last decade.
As can be seen World Bank, USAID, UK DFID, ADB have all joined in with Ministry of Finance, Gov., of Pakistan which underlies the success of this project since 2008. Indeed new schemes like cash grants for setting up business or vocational training have been launched to prevent people becoming dependant on welfare culture.
Below is the actual link to BISP website of the government agency handling income support payments.
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Benazir Income Support Programme
CORRECTION: The BISP payment rate for 2015 is
Rs1,500 per month.
And that's why we south Asians go to these countries with better system and better life. They do not come to settle in Pakistan. 
