The issue is not only his decisions, but the rats in his cabinet.
I felt the emotions with which you wrote this. Bloody overseas Pakistanis REALLY !!!
This is pure bull shit! Has this covered EVERYONE under the poverty line?ever heard of cost adjusted inflation? These companies need to run business not charities. Government in a free market cannot stop business from charging what is costing them and some profit. Ofcourse Drug makers are just another mafia that arbitrary increases prices and makes poor people suffer. But government is trying to help poor at the same time as well.
Do some research on the effects of Sehat card on the poorest population of Pakistan and how it has helped million tremendously.
Why not discuss this while you are at it?
Ehsaas programme being enhanced from Rs144bn to Rs203bn
The Newspaper's Staff ReporterUpdated 17 Jul, 2020
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Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Dr Sania Nishtar addressing a press conference.—APP
ISLAMABAD: Amid adverse impact of the coronavirus on the poor and people belonging to low-income groups, the government has decided to enhance the Ehsaas Emergency Cash programme from Rs144 billion to Rs203bn.
Under the first phase of the programme [of Rs144 billion] 12 million families were provided four-month stipend of Rs12,000. Now with the increase in its funds the programme will facilitate around 17m families.
“It means that almost half of the population of the country will be covered under the programme,” said Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Safety and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar at a press conference on Thursday.
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD
“The scope of emergency cash programme has been expanded to reach out to around 16.9 million deserving families with the increased budget of Rs203 billion,” she added.
Accompanied by Information Minister Shibli Faraz, the SAPM said initially the programme was launched on April 9 with a budget of Rs144 billion for 12 million beneficiaries.
She, however, said 12.86 million beneficiaries across the country had so far received one-time cash assistance of Rs155.64bn through emergency cash initiative as in addition to Rs144bn over Rs10bn was distributed through other resources, including the Prime Minister Corona Fund.
“The government’s largest social protection programme, Ehsaas, has taken the lead in radically expanding social safety nets to help mitigate effects of Covid-19 within Pakistan,” she added.
Terming the programme a big success of the government, she said the programme was fully transparent, rule and merit based, and apolitical. “Sindh gains the most from this programme which shows its apolitical nature,” she said while giving an indirect reply to the allegation made by the ruling party in Sindh, Pakistan Peoples Party, that the province had been ignored and its people had not benefited from the scheme.
She said as compared to initiatives taken in other countries, the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme gained international recognition for disbursing in time cash assistance in a well organised manner and at a larger scale.
Dr Nishtar said digital capabilities developed over the past year as part of the Ehsaas strategy had positively been adopted in making emergency cash payments.
“Requests were sought through an SMS short code service; data analytics enabled eligibility ascertainment, using unique national identification numbers and drawing on the National Socioeconomic Registry and wealth proxies (travel, taxes, billing, assets ownership data and government employment status), and payments are biometrically verified,” she explained the process of payments made under the programme.
The beneficiaries who were eligible but facing problems in withdrawing money owing to faulty biometric identification were being paid out exclusively in the designated bank branches of partner banks.
Similarly, to ease out the payment process for families of deceased beneficiaries, Ehsaas has adopted a procedure under which the families of deceased beneficiaries are required to send out an application in her name (Dr Sania Nishtar) with Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) details of their dead family member along with those of eligible family member straight to Ehsaas offices at Islamabad.
Ms Nishtar said Ehsaas has also launched ‘Ehsaas Emergency Cash — Know Your Status’ Portal to offer an easy window to people registered with Ehsaas Emergency Cash to check their eligibility. “All applicants who have registered themselves through 8171 or Prime Minister’s Labour Portal can now easily check their eligibility status by entering CNIC number on the portal,” she added.
Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2020
The experience starts the minute these sorry souls go to the consulate / embassy, or land on their beloved soil.
I personally know such people in my circles, Who are really big and good businessmen in USA,
www.thenews.com.pk
Just answer me one thingBro the program just started and you want to cover everyone? even the superpower cannot cover everyone under the social security umbrella .....and you expect that from a third world poor country...
As I said before do not expect miracles and be realistic. Its a good start and millions of families are benefiting. Please do not undermine and redicule everything because your political idiology doesnt allign with PTI. What is right and good will always be worthy of praise....
Please do read this :
A series of success
Every year, when new financial year starts and government announces its budget, frenzy ensues. While treasury benches focus on provision of people friendly budget document, opposition sees it as a...
A series of success
Every year, when new financial year starts and government announces its budget, frenzy ensues. While treasury benches focus on provision of people friendly budget document, opposition sees it as a calamity inflicted upon the citizens. This is what happened this year too when current government presented its COVID-19 hit budget. While some pessimists started criticising government, they conveniently overlooked the successes of PTI government under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Ehsaas Programme, Kamyab Jawan programmes, Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme, Model Langer Khana, shelter homes, Billion Tree Tsunami project, Clean Green Pakistan Index, and better foreign policy and measures for the protection and welfare of the minorities are some of the among major achievements of the PTI government as far as the new projects are concerned.
From sustained adjustment in current account deficit to continued fiscal prudence, PTI government has delivered remarkably well, unlike the opponent’s belief. Indicators have to be viewed in entirety. If anything, current account is depicting strength of its external account. To deal with the current account deficit, alleviating domestic demand and consumption through tightening the monetary policy and market based exchange rate regime was the only choice left with the government.
While reducing growth and increasing inflation in the short term, this policy also resulted in reducing current account deficit, increasing exports in quality and value, stabilising and increasing foreign exchange reserves which followed downward trajectory in last 20 months of previous government. These measures lessened the external loan requirements and improved world’s confidence in Pakistan’s economy. Moody’s upgraded Pakistan’s rating outlook from B3 ‘negative’ to ‘stable’ and the foreign direct investment in first 9 months of the FY2019-20 spiked after 11 years. Internally, in 9 months, FBR taxes increased by 17%. After 20 years, budget had a primary surplus of 0.4%.
Criticism from some opponents about houses’ construction is devoid of any merit. As difficult times require difficult decisions, helping people to feed themselves in drastic times like these, is a matter of an absolute primary concern. While there is optimism from Naya Pakistan Housing Authority to deliver what it is mandated for, priority is to feed people and lift them out of poverty especially during the times of COVID-19. Construction and industry sector has faced severe impact in the wake of corona and lockdown, limiting any labour intensive activities.
Pakistan’s unemployment rate is approx. 6% while unemployment rate in India and USA are 27.1% and 13.3% respectively. So while whole world is facing the devastating outcomes of this pandemic, situation in Pakistan is not that melancholic.
According to Economic Survey of Pakistan, ‘The fiscal deficit has substantially reduced to 4.0 % of GDP during July-March, FY2020 against 5.1 % of GDP in the comparable period last year. FBR tax collection grew by 10.8 % to Rs 3,300.6 billion during July-April, FY2020 against Rs 2,980.0 billion in the comparable period last year.’ Clearly showing, government’s fiscal policy paying off in an increased revenue generation.
Poverty alleviation is the primary target for Government. In the wake of COVID-19, a relief package of Rs144 billion was approved to provide immediate cash relief of Rs12,000 to 12 million poor families under Ehsaas. As per provincial and regional breakdown available on the online Ehsaas disbursements portal, as of today, an amount of Rs52.70 billion among 43.42 million beneficiaries in Punjab, Rs.36.63 billion among 30.34 million beneficiaries in Sindh and Rs.22.69 billion has been distributed among 18.45 million beneficiaries of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
As per Economic Survey, during July to March FY2020, PBM has disbursed an amount of Rs 2.705 billion through its core projects.
Moreover, ‘Digital Pakistan’ programme, is one of its kind. Keeping in view the critical role played by start-ups in economic growth, job creation, financial inclusion, reducing the income divide, and building a knowledge economy, the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan is to improve public service delivery through e-governance initiatives. An amount of Rs1 billion has been allocated for implementation of this project.
With the outburst of Covid-19, the government’s efforts to bring the economy back on track which had seen substantial progress were undone by the inescapable lockdown subsequently imposed. Nearly all industries and businesses were impacted. A loss of nearly Rs3.3 trillion to the gross domestic product was experienced, which resulted in a 0.4% contraction in the GDP. Meanwhile, the budget deficit ballooned from 7.1% of the GDP to 9.1%. The Federal Board of Revenue , which had an ambitious target of around Rs4900 billion lost Rs900bn in potential revenues due to the coronavirus shutdown. Despite the hit to the economy, the government managed to scrape together a stimulus package in excess of Rs1,200 billion, of which Rs875 billion have been reallocated from the federal budget.
Conclusively, the PTI government is in fact clearing the clutter gathered over last thirty years and is trying to put the country on the right track, leading to progress and prosperity. All this and other steps by Federal Government under the leadership of PM Imran Khan clearly depict pro-poor policies where the prime objective of any economic decision is to help the down trodden of society. This had been the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan and this will turn out to be a reality of its dreams.
— The author is a social scientist, research scholar, public policy analyst. She can be reached at [email protected]
Twitter: @DhanakHash
Didnt you know? We go out each day and pick dollars from trees. Its us that are being selfish when we dont send money back. We have so much of it here that we use it for fuel.....that's how they see us
Priorties I guess. Some people are worried about how people effected by these record rains, who were already in bad shape due to corona are going to survive. THEN there are those who are worried about statues.
Right now all I want is a name and number of someone in GoP who can help people made homeless or whose homes were damaged due to torrential rains. Sorry, but Not in the mood for unicorns and rainbows sprouting of thier rear ends.Bro the program just started and you want to cover everyone? even the superpower cannot cover everyone under the social security umbrella .....and you expect that from a third world poor country...
As I said before do not expect miracles and be realistic. Its a good start and millions of families are benefiting. Please do not undermine and redicule everything because your political idiology doesnt allign with PTI. What is right and good will always be worthy of praise....
Please do read this :
A series of success
Every year, when new financial year starts and government announces its budget, frenzy ensues. While treasury benches focus on provision of people friendly budget document, opposition sees it as a...
A series of success
Every year, when new financial year starts and government announces its budget, frenzy ensues. While treasury benches focus on provision of people friendly budget document, opposition sees it as a calamity inflicted upon the citizens. This is what happened this year too when current government presented its COVID-19 hit budget. While some pessimists started criticising government, they conveniently overlooked the successes of PTI government under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Ehsaas Programme, Kamyab Jawan programmes, Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme, Model Langer Khana, shelter homes, Billion Tree Tsunami project, Clean Green Pakistan Index, and better foreign policy and measures for the protection and welfare of the minorities are some of the among major achievements of the PTI government as far as the new projects are concerned.
From sustained adjustment in current account deficit to continued fiscal prudence, PTI government has delivered remarkably well, unlike the opponent’s belief. Indicators have to be viewed in entirety. If anything, current account is depicting strength of its external account. To deal with the current account deficit, alleviating domestic demand and consumption through tightening the monetary policy and market based exchange rate regime was the only choice left with the government.
While reducing growth and increasing inflation in the short term, this policy also resulted in reducing current account deficit, increasing exports in quality and value, stabilising and increasing foreign exchange reserves which followed downward trajectory in last 20 months of previous government. These measures lessened the external loan requirements and improved world’s confidence in Pakistan’s economy. Moody’s upgraded Pakistan’s rating outlook from B3 ‘negative’ to ‘stable’ and the foreign direct investment in first 9 months of the FY2019-20 spiked after 11 years. Internally, in 9 months, FBR taxes increased by 17%. After 20 years, budget had a primary surplus of 0.4%.
Criticism from some opponents about houses’ construction is devoid of any merit. As difficult times require difficult decisions, helping people to feed themselves in drastic times like these, is a matter of an absolute primary concern. While there is optimism from Naya Pakistan Housing Authority to deliver what it is mandated for, priority is to feed people and lift them out of poverty especially during the times of COVID-19. Construction and industry sector has faced severe impact in the wake of corona and lockdown, limiting any labour intensive activities.
Pakistan’s unemployment rate is approx. 6% while unemployment rate in India and USA are 27.1% and 13.3% respectively. So while whole world is facing the devastating outcomes of this pandemic, situation in Pakistan is not that melancholic.
According to Economic Survey of Pakistan, ‘The fiscal deficit has substantially reduced to 4.0 % of GDP during July-March, FY2020 against 5.1 % of GDP in the comparable period last year. FBR tax collection grew by 10.8 % to Rs 3,300.6 billion during July-April, FY2020 against Rs 2,980.0 billion in the comparable period last year.’ Clearly showing, government’s fiscal policy paying off in an increased revenue generation.
Poverty alleviation is the primary target for Government. In the wake of COVID-19, a relief package of Rs144 billion was approved to provide immediate cash relief of Rs12,000 to 12 million poor families under Ehsaas. As per provincial and regional breakdown available on the online Ehsaas disbursements portal, as of today, an amount of Rs52.70 billion among 43.42 million beneficiaries in Punjab, Rs.36.63 billion among 30.34 million beneficiaries in Sindh and Rs.22.69 billion has been distributed among 18.45 million beneficiaries of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
As per Economic Survey, during July to March FY2020, PBM has disbursed an amount of Rs 2.705 billion through its core projects.
Moreover, ‘Digital Pakistan’ programme, is one of its kind. Keeping in view the critical role played by start-ups in economic growth, job creation, financial inclusion, reducing the income divide, and building a knowledge economy, the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan is to improve public service delivery through e-governance initiatives. An amount of Rs1 billion has been allocated for implementation of this project.
With the outburst of Covid-19, the government’s efforts to bring the economy back on track which had seen substantial progress were undone by the inescapable lockdown subsequently imposed. Nearly all industries and businesses were impacted. A loss of nearly Rs3.3 trillion to the gross domestic product was experienced, which resulted in a 0.4% contraction in the GDP. Meanwhile, the budget deficit ballooned from 7.1% of the GDP to 9.1%. The Federal Board of Revenue , which had an ambitious target of around Rs4900 billion lost Rs900bn in potential revenues due to the coronavirus shutdown. Despite the hit to the economy, the government managed to scrape together a stimulus package in excess of Rs1,200 billion, of which Rs875 billion have been reallocated from the federal budget.
Conclusively, the PTI government is in fact clearing the clutter gathered over last thirty years and is trying to put the country on the right track, leading to progress and prosperity. All this and other steps by Federal Government under the leadership of PM Imran Khan clearly depict pro-poor policies where the prime objective of any economic decision is to help the down trodden of society. This had been the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan and this will turn out to be a reality of its dreams.
— The author is a social scientist, research scholar, public policy analyst. She can be reached at [email protected]
Twitter: @DhanakHash