The Senate Standing Committee on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety on Wednesday called for lifting a recruitment ban in the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) and Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM), while raising concerns over vacant posts, deputation policies and blockage of BISP cards.
A committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Senator Umer Gorgaij urged the importance of discouraging appointment on deputation to the BISP from Education and Health sectors. The PA&SS minister apprised that the Ministry of Finance & Revenue had already been approached on the matter and proposed that the committee recommend the assurance of smooth transition of pending recruitments and assured that the same would be presented before the prime minister.
The committee also discussed the shortage of mobile vans and necessary measures to address these issues in Balochistan. The federal minister informed that from a total of 25 available mobile vans, 18 have been allocated to facilitate working in Balochistan. The matter of 400,000 blocked cards of BISP beneficiaries was discussed with the decision to take up the matter with Nadra.
Accordingly, it was briefed that currently, 17 individuals were working on deputation at the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal while 45 employees had been promoted recently. The committee was briefed over the recovery of Rs1.9 million as House Rent Allowance from an officer of the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal. It was apprised that a minute portion of HRA was recovered, leaving an outstanding amount of Rs1.55 million. The committee deferred the report of a sub-committee.