KARACHI: Foreign Minister and Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has announced an immediate increase of 25% in the amount of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) stipend, vowing that the process of providing relief money to the flood-affected small farmers by the Sindh government will also be accelerated.

He said that the PPP’s politics was based on bringing justice to the common man. Addressing the inauguration ceremony of the registration of deserving women under the BISP through the National Database and Registration Authority on Saturday, the foreign minister said that the concept of this revolutionary programme was given by Benazir Bhutto in her manifesto looking at the poverty, inflation and economic crisis in the country.

He said that the purpose of BISP was to revolutionise the lives of the weakest women in the country. Bilawal said that when this programme was being launched, the country's bureaucracy, opposition politicians and so-called intellectuals were against it. Before the start of the BISP, opponents used to say that the people were being made beggars. “The amount of Rs1,000 may not mean much to many people, but the same amount received under the BISP can change the fortunes of a poor person, a child or a mother.”

The FM said that during his presidency, President Asif Ali Zardari fought against the entire system to implement the BISP and by holding meetings every week in the President House, the poor women across the country were given assistance money within a year.

 He said, “We have made the BISP the most transparent institution. International organisations, including the United Nations, appreciate the BISP and its transparency.” The PPP chairman said that there were two types of political parties in the world. “The first type says that if the rich are made richer, they will provide employment to more people, while the second type believes that no matter how much the rich are made richer, their scope for providing employment is still the same and limited.”

He added that he had noticed that the richer men were mostly miser men. Bilawal said that the BISP not only ran a woman's house, but also small businesses were run along with it. “Even today, there is inflation, unemployment and economic crisis in the country,” he said. The PPP chairman said that it was sad to point out that Imran Khan used to say during his tenure that he did not come to government to see the prices of tomatoes and onions. “But we have to see the prices of tomatoes and onions as well because we are in the government to give relief to the common man.”

Published in The Daily National Courier, February, 27 2023

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