BISP - Largest Aid Programme to Alleviate Poverty In Pakistan

      

" I was living my life in extreme poverty. BISP became my savior. My children are able to receive a formal education. "
- BISP beneficiary

Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) also referred to as the National Cash Transfer Programme was launched in 2008 by Pakistan's People's Party(PPP) in tribute to the widow of president Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated in 2007. BISP also empowers the women of the households with cash transfers. It aims to eradicate poverty and boost the country's economic growth. Pakistan's poor economic growth had an adverse effect on the people who were living below the poverty line. Therefore, Benazir Income Support Programme was initiated to target 15% of Pakistan's population that was living in extreme poverty conditions.

BISP was instigated to elevate the status of the marginalized and underprivileged sections of the society targeting the 149 districts in Pakistan. Its primary objective was to meet the primary goals of the country by providing aid to chronically poor families. One of the objectives of this was to empower women therefore the quarterly transfer is paid directly to the female head of the family aiming to elevate the effects of food price inflation and other unexpected cost increases on the poorest and vulnerable households. Benazir income support program is the largest aid program. Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are among the provinces that have implemented the Benazir income support program. The program also works in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the Federal Government and Islamabad capital territory.

Different Phases in BISP

Parliamentarian Phase - Phase 1

There was no accurate data for identifying disadvantaged and vulnerable persons in the country when the Benazir Income Support Programme, UCT program began in July 2008 so what ways was referred to as Phase1 were of targeting the duty of identifying potential and the capable best recipient was left to the parliamentarians regardless of Party membership and an equal number of application forms were sent to parliamentarians (8000 forms to each member of the National Assembly and Senate and thousand forms to each member of the Provincial Assemblies). The forms were checked against the NADRA database. 2.2 million families were judged to be eligible for cash transfers out of the total 4.2 million forms received. a total of rupees 20 6.6 billion was dispersed via this targeting mechanism.

Poverty Scorecard Survey - Phase 2

The first of its type in South Asia, a nationwide poverty scorecard service survey allowed BISP to identify eligible families by using a proxy means test (PMT) to evaluate the household's welfare status on a scale of 0 to 100. The study, which was undertaken by independent businesses engaged through a competitive bidding procedure, began in October 2010 and was completed across Pakistan, with the exception of two FATA agencies, North and South Waziristan.

27 million households have been covered under a nationwide poverty scorecard survey that constituted 150.5 million people across the country. The estimated population during 2010 was 17 7.94 million which implies the coverage of the survey is around 85%. Area-wise coverage statistics show that 14.8 1 million households in Punjab 6.6 million in 3.6 million in kpk and 1.1 million in Balochistan. in a JK around 0.58 million, in GB 0.1 5 million and Fata 0.40 Million are covered. The highest coverage was in GB followed by AJK, and Punjab.

Payments Distribution Mechanism

A reliable and transparent payment mechanism is required for the program's successful execution. BISP tried several various money distribution systems. There are now 5 payment disbursement techniques in use
1. Pakistan Post Money Orders 2. Smart Card Payment Dispersal System 3. Mobile Banking System 4. Debit Card System 5. Biometric Verification System                  .      

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for cash payments under BISP, families must earn less than Rs 6,000 per month; equivalent to $67.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:

• 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.

• 

The world bank has also recognized BISP among the top 4 protection interventions globally in terms of the people covered and aided. It is clearly evident that Benazir Income Support Programme has linked itself with the SDGs like ending poverty, ensuring the inclusive and equitable quality of education, achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, and reducing inequality within and among countries. It has been very clear that the impact assessment of this program, it has successfully resulted in establishing the National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER), empowerment of women, improved transparency and efficiency of the program, advancement of human capital development through implementation of Co responsibility Cash Transfers (CCT) close program. The success of the program shows that three different political parties (PPP, PML-N, and PTI) have taken this aid program forward to eradicate poverty and help people live a better quality of life and are still working to make this initiative sustainable in the future.

 Group Members
 
 Bs 6th (Gpp)
Gul Rukh Khan  - Raja Talal Satti - Muzammil Yasin - Zeeshan Ali 

Public Sector : Strengthening the Public

Public sector , the word itself portrays a clear meaning " The exercise of the public authority and  the implementation of public policy for the citizens of the state. " When we talk about the public sector, we are generally referring to the public institutions or the portion of the economy that is solely composed of government organizations.

According to Jane Erik Lane, author of The Public Sector: Concepts, Models and Approaches, Public sectors are defined as  – “Government activity and its consequences”. Since the public sector comprises the organizations that are completely owned and operated by the government sector or institutions therefore their sole responsibility and aim is to provide services to the citizens of the state. When we talk about the services that the public sector provides then we generally talk about the services like health care, national defense, public education, Electricity, emergency Services, free services, gas and oil, infrastructure common law enforcement, police services, postal service, public transit, social services, waste management, water management and many other services that are compulsory for living a standard and a quality life. Unlike the private sector of society, the public sector does not generate any profit or seek to generate any profit from its citizens by providing all the services.

The public sector creates value that is valued above the profit motivation by society. These are the things that a society wishes to operate according to a set of values because they have something to do with the human condition, models for the experience. For example, a society may deem health, education, justice, defense, public space, natural resources, public safety, and environmental protection to be public services that are above the profit motive.

When talking about the private sector we know that the private sector solely aims to generate profit. As a matter of fact, we know that without the public sector, the private sector cannot exist as a single firm. In the past few decades, we have seen that there has been a great paradigm shift in the public sectors of Pakistan. Earlier, the public sector of Pakistan was neglected and no reforms were taken into consideration, if talking about any public policy then it was just a failure for both the policymakers and the public. Those policies would fail and there would be no implementation of such policies. With the changes in the political scenario, the current government of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf has worked effortlessly to bring different reforms in the public sector mainly the Education, Health, and economic sector.

Public Sector vs Private Sector?

Profitable businesses usually represent the private sector, whereas government agencies usually represent the public sector.

Ownership

In the private sector the entire business or the companies are owned by individuals or the group of individuals that are in a competition to generate maximum profit whereas, in the public sector, governmental organizations are not owned by individuals hence,  and operated on the behalf of the entire public.

Production of Goods

Keeping in view the goods and services produced in both the sectors so the best example according to my point of view is the National Security, which is the public good and benefits everyone equally. Taxes are used to pay for these products, which are given by public sector organizations for individuals and corporations to profit from private products such as transportation, houses, or offices and each private item may only be consumed by one person or business. individuals and companies pay for them.

Employment

Working in the public sector has a lot of perks, including job security and a variety of high-quality benefits packages. Excellent retirement benefits and suitable insurance plans are among them. Except during situations of substantial budget deficits, public employees often have more job security than private employees. Furthermore, once a probationary term has been completed, many government posts become permanent hires. It is quite improbable that an employee will be laid off once this time period has passed.

In comparison to the more stable atmosphere seen in the public realm, a more competitive marketplace might entail longer hours and more challenging work situations. The market forces that exist in the private sector do not apply to government institutions.

	Public Sector	Private Sector
Types of Organizations	Government	For-profit businesses
Types of Goods Provides	Public goods that benefit all	Private goods that benefit individuals, businesses, organizations
Ownership	The public	Individuals, shareholders
Profit-Making?	No	Yes
Types of Workers	Civil servants	Employees and independent contractors

The above table shows a clear difference between the two prominent sectors of the state and how both the sectors work and benefit the citizens in their own ways. Since the difference between the sectors defines that the public sector is more inclined towards the welfare of the society without aiming to acquire any profits, therefore, public sectors should be opted for running the government of the particular state.

Some of the eminent reforms made in the past few years by the existing government in the public sector reforms are as followed,

Health Care System

The government has brought immense improvement in the standard of public health facilities. The reforms aim to provide the best and quality healthcare facilities to people in the public sector hospitals. According to the press coverage in The Express Tribune, it has been clearly mentioned that the health sector has been increased by 118% during the last three years, adding that Rs369 billion had been allocated for the sector in the current financial year while Rs1.5 billion had been allocated for the purchase of the anti-coronavirus vaccine.

The National Health Card is one of the major reforms made in the public sector health care. Underprivileged segments of the population in all districts of Pakistan are enjoying quality healthcare services without any financial barriers. The program is set to cover the entire population of Pakistan under Universal Health Insurance soon.

There are a total of 1,279 government-run hospitals in the country, as per the Pakistan Bureau of Statistic’s 2018 report. Some of the renowned public hospitals that have adopted some reforms in the previous years to improve the quality of their service are as follows:

National Institute of Health, Ayub Medical Complex, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Allama Iqbal Memorial Hospital, Jinnah Hospital, Fatima Memorial Hospital and  Lahore General Hospital.

Education System

Education is a foundation for the development and progress of any society. It is a base upon which the whole building of human development stands. Similar to the reforms made in the health care unit of Pakistan, the education sector also stands in the same queue. According to Pakistan Education Statistics (2016 - 2018), The education system of Pakistan comprises 305,763 institutions accommodating 51,835,089 students and 2,073,433 teachers. The system is composed of 189,748 (62%) public institutions and 116,015 (38%) private institutions, which also include 31,115 Deeni Madaris. To make sure that the children of the state get quality of education and there should be no discrimination in the standards of education, the government is working on multiple education policies like the single national curriculum and many others.

“If we get public education right, everything else will follow. But if we get it wrong, not much else will matter.”
- Steve Kagen

Strengthening Pakistan’s Social Safety Net Program

Pakistan has made substantial progress in reducing poverty, and social protection programs have played an important role. Budgeted social safety net programs include Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM), and Social Security & Welfare while Zakat, Employees Old-age Benefit Institution (EOBI), and Workers Welfare Fund (WWF). Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) is the non-budgetary part of the program.
Pakistan is opening numerous opportunities to further reduce poverty. At the household level, for example, increasing the income of poor families allows for investments in education for children and economic opportunities for parents. At the institutional level, investment in establishing social protection systems will foster greater efficiencies—allowing Pakistan to do more with limited resources.
 Digitalization in the public sectors

With the world moving towards adopting and excelling with the growing technology, Pakistan's public sector has also emerged in this walk of life and has worked effortlessly to adopt the technological framework for developing the economy. In the past few years the government of Pakistan has worked on different Digital innovations and has resulted in bringing forward the following prominent digital achievements in the light of the public sector:
Citizen Portal, NADRA, Pakistan Post, Digitizing tax collection, E- Taleem, and FBR.

  .   
Since Pakistan is the world's fifth-largest populous country with a population of  220 million people, 24.3% of the population lives below the national poverty line. Looking at the realistic side of the picture, we know that 24.3% of the poor population can not rely on the private sector of the society where the general aim is profit-making. Therefore, the public sector and its reforms tend to be a beacon of hope for those who can not afford to live a private standard of life and depend on their government to provide them all the basic necessities to live a quality life.

                                                                                                     Gul Rukh Khan - Bs 6th - Gpp

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

 

PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

A Public-private partnership (PPP) is often defined as a long-term contract between a private party and a government agency for providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant risk and management responsibility (World Bank, 2012).

Collaboration between a government agency and a private-sector enterprise that can be utilized to fund, create, and operate projects such as public transit networks, parks, and convention centers is known as a public-private partnership.

WHY PUBLIC PRIVATE PATNERSHIP:

It entails the public sector and its partners sharing and transferring risks and gains. Such collaborations aim to plan, finance, and deliver public-interest policy objectives by combining multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary knowledge. PPPs are one of the most successful ways to expand private sector engagement in public service delivery, increase growth, and create jobs, all of which contribute to poverty alleviation. PPPs aid in attracting private capital investment, enhancing efficiency through the private sector's profit motive, and reforming selected sectors through role and risk reallocation.

BENIFITS:

Some of the advantages of PPP include

 Access to private sector finance.

 Increased efficiency in the private sector.

 The use of funds has become more transparent.

 Procurement is a time-consuming activity that involves substantial transaction expenses.

 Contractual uncertainty

 Monitoring and enforcement are both important.

 

SOME OF PUBLIC PRIVATE ORGANISATIONS ARE

1: NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MODERN LANGUAGES

The National Institution of Modern Languages is a multi-campus public-private university having a main campus in Islamabad and satellite campuses around Pakistan.

2: QUID-E-AZAM UNIVERSITY

The University attracts a high number of international students due to its international reputation, professors, and programmer, while admitting a limited number of students from all parts of the country.

 

 

3: NESPAK

National Engineering Services Pakistan (NES) is a multinational state-owned enterprise and an energy contractor based in Pakistan that provides global consulting, construction, engineering, and management services. It is one of Africa's and Asia's largest engineering consultant management firms.

4: RED CRECENT

In February 1974, the Pakistani Parliament revised the Act of 1920, transforming the Red Cross into the Red Crescent, and the Sindh Provincial Branch is also governed by the same Act. The Society is a STATUTORY BODY, not an NGO, as the general public believes.

5: PIMS

PIMS was conceived as a leading institution known for its state-of-the-art facilities, best medical education, and comprehensive personalized care offered under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode by PIMS Society, PIMS Medical and Education Charitable Society, Department of Medical Education and Research, and GOP.

 6: PAKISTAN RAILWAYS

 Pakistan railways ia also an semi government organiztiona

public private Partnership a stance in state.

 

PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

Definition:

“Public-private partnerships involve collaboration between a government agency and a private-sector company that can be used to finance, build, and operate projects, such as public transportation networks, parks, and convention centers. Financing a project through a public-private partnership can allow a project to be completed sooner or make it a possibility in the first place. Public-private partnerships often involve concessions of tax or other operating revenue, protection from liability, or partial ownership rights over nominally public services and property to private sector, for-profit entities.”

 

The Government of Pakistan strongly supports PPP initiatives. From 1990 to 2019, Pakistan witnessed 108 financially closed PPP projects, with a total investment of approximately $28.4 billion. In early 2021, Parliament approved the amendments to the 2017 PPP Law, enacting the Public Private Partnership Authority (Amendment) Act 2021. This further strengthens the enabling legal and regulatory framework for developing and implementing PPPs, thereby promoting private sector investment in public infrastructure and related services.

 The Government of Pakistan has limited public sector funding available to cater to the country’s overall public infrastructure requirements and related services. To bridge this gap, the Government made a policy decision to tap private sector investments and expertise. Following this policy decision of the Federal Government in 2006, Infrastructure Project Development Facility (IPDF) - a Section 42 company registered under the Companies Ordinance, 1984 (now Companies Act 2017) functioning under the aegis of the Ministry of Finance - was established to facilitate the implementing agencies in developing and structuring their infrastructure projects on a Public Private Partnership (P3) basis.

 

The mandate of IPDF was supported by “Pakistan Policy on Public Private Partnerships” that was initially approved in 2007 by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC). This was replaced with a revised Policy that was approved by ECC on 26 January 2010. The mandate of IPDF was limited to the provision of transaction advisory services and capacity building of the implementing agencies. Till 2017, IPDF successfully developed, structured, helped procure and implemented four (4) mega projects worth approximately PKR 140 Billion.

 

With the promulgation of the Public Private Partnership Authority Act (No. VII), 2017, IPDF was converted into a Public Private Partnership Authority (the, “P3A”). IPDF’s assets, employees and liabilities were transferred to the newly established P3A with an improved and enhanced regulatory mandate as given in the Public Private Partnership Authority Act, 2017 (the, “P3A Act”). The provisions of the P3A Act and functions of P3A are limited and extended to Federal Government line ministries and their infrastructure projects.

 

According to information available on the PPP Authority's official website, at the federal level, 47 PPP projects are in the pipeline across sectors out of the 105 PSDP+ portfolio federal projects.6 Additionally, the PPP Authority lists a number of 'early harvest' projects that it is assisting with, including:

 

The construction of the Sukkur Hyderabad Motorway (expected cost around US$1.2 billion);

The construction of the Sialkot Kharian Motorway (expected cost around US$225 million);

The construction of a teaching and research hospital;

The construction of an innovations ecosystem (science and technology park);

The conversion of a guesthouse located in Lahore (the provincial capital of Punjab province) into a hotel;

The creation of a mass transit facility in a major city, the Karachi Circular Railway; and

The modernisation of the current Karachi–Pipri Rail Track.7

Previous projects finalised by the IPDF include:

 

The overlay and modernisation of the Lahore Islamabad Motorway (investment of US$460 million), which has been in operation since 2016;

The construction of the Lahore Sialkot Motorway (investment of US$438 million), which is in operation now;

The conversion of an existing four-lane super highway into a six-lane Karachi Hyderabad highway (investment of US$430 million), which has been in operation since 2017; and

The construction of the Habibabad Flyover (investment of US$8 million), which has been in operation since 2014.8

 

 

Muhammad Arbaz Khan

Bs 6^th (morning)

Numl-f19-14443

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