Use BISP the right way

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has always advocated and worked for women’s empowerment. PPP founding father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto always championed women’s rights. He took record legislative steps as well as many executive measures for women’s empowerment.

Nominating former prime minister Benazir Bhutto as his successor and giving the reins of the party to Begum Nusrat Bhutto was part of his vision for women’s empowerment. When we look at the tenure of Benazir Bhutto, she too was an ardent supporter of making women take their own decisions and empowering them.

During her tenure several measures including women getting high-ranking jobs, the establishment of women police stations and provision of jobs for women, the establishment of women’s banks and more jobs for women, the introduction of lady health visitors and lady health workers programme for the provision of health facilities to mother and child at their doorstep, creating job opportunities for women through the non-formal education sector, provision of jobs for women in adult literacy centres.

It was part of the vision of BB Shaheed that fifty per cent of Pakistan’s population was able to get an education.

After demise of Benazir Bhutto when it was feared that her vision of women empowerment may get derailed, President Asif Ali Zardari took over the reins of the party in 2008 and took her mission forward by introducing the Benazir Income Support Program. Women from far-flung areas immensely benefitted from this programme.

BISP was initiated as an initiative for social protection with a major emphasis on protecting the most vulnerable segments (poorer) against financial crises due to natural calamities or inflation. Millions of women got their Computerised National Identity Cards and their children got enrolled in schools.

However, the preceding governments instead of using their programme for women’s empowerment used it as a tool to degrade women by making standing in queues for assistance. In many instances, the people were reportedly persuaded to cast their votes for a respective party that was giving them assistance under this programme. Looking at this aspect of the BISP, many women were doing labour at work and earning their livelihood, started running from pillar to post to get registered with BISP.

Today when the world is interconnected through social media and YouTube, it will be very easy to assess as which party benefitted the most from BISP. It was Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf that benefited the most from this programme as its supporters even facilitated the inclusion of non-deserving Pashtuns and Afghans in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab as beneficiaries of BISP.

There had been discussions within health sectors of Pakistan that the Sehat Insaf Card (Qaumi Sehat Card/Also known as Insaf Health Card) had been benefiting private hospitals more than patients, and an inquiry report released by the inquiry committee of the Khyber Pakhtun­khwa (KPK) Ministry of Health on April 17, 2023 has recommended a comprehensive investigation not only in KPK rather all over Pakistan because a cursory look into the case indicates that Sehat Insaf Card could be one of the biggest scams in medical health in Pakistan’s history.

This year too, a budget worth Rs450 billion has been allocated for BISP, and millions of women will be put on track of seeking charity.

If one looks at Bangladesh where women are playing an important part in improving the economy of their country by working in factories but women in Pakistan are made to stand in lines for registration of BISP. Why doesn’t the government set up small industries through this Rs450 billion budget and provide job opportunities for women instead of making them look out for easy money? This will not only help the women to get more empowered. I believe and hope that President Asif Ali Zardari will look into this issue and take it seriously as it will continue BB

Shaheed’s vision of women empowerment thus making 52 percent of our population a more productive part of the workforce.

Sumaira Gul,

PPP Women Wing President, Rawalpindi