ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister Imran Khan formally launched the Ehsaas Kafaalat Program in Islamabad on Friday to financially empower a total of seven million most deserving women across the country in three phases.
Addressing the ceremony, the Prime Minister said the government is taking steps to make Pakistan a welfare state on the pattern of state of Madina.
He said the social welfare programs of the incumbent government transform Pakistan into a country where social equality prevails.
The Prime Minister said no society can develop where elite prospers at the expense of a sea of poor people. The Prime Minister said PTI government has so far given health cards to six million families who can now avail the medical treatment of up to 720,000 rupees.
Imran Khan said loans being given under the Ehsaas program will promote entrepreneurship and small and medium enterprises of the country.
He said around two hundred billion rupees have been earmarked for the Ehsaas program to help uplift the weaker segments of society.
The Prime Minister said under the Kafaalat program opening bank accounts of women will help stop the theft of their money and also enable them to purchase essential items from Utility Stores Corporation outlets. Imran Khan also appreciated giving smartphones to program recipients that will open a whole new world for them and their families.
He said new programs of Ehsaas will be coming soon, under which other social welfare measures will be given to poor people. He said stenting and malnutrition are two major issues facing poor people.
The Prime Minister appreciated the Special Assistant Dr. Sania Nishtar on working hard and developing proper systems to distribute the money among the most deserving people of the country.
The Prime Minister also distributed Kafaalat cards among the deserving women.
Earlier, Special Assistant on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr. Sania Nishtar said under the program deserving women will be given cash stipends of two thousand rupees per month.
She said identifying the deserving persons was a big task as the data of BISP was ten years old. She said the government used NADRA records and surveys to identify the persons who really deserve so that unscrupulous elements do not take advantage of the scheme. She said the process of desk registration of deserving persons has been started at the Tehsil level.
She said agreements have now been made with two banks to open biometric ATMs to facilitate the receiving of money under Ehsaas Kafaalat program.
She said every recipient woman will have a savings bank account. She said smartphones will be provided to the recipients in order to facilitate them on financial transactions and to gain access to other useful projects under Ehsaas initiatives. She said 7 million households are being brought into the fold of Kafaalat, which also includes 4 million households of Benazir Income Support Program. Kafaalat has been opened in seventy districts across the country while the schedule of remaining districts will be issued soon.
