Chairperson of BISP (Benazir Income Support Programme), Dr. Sania Nishtar has taken exception to a mention of her in an oped piece published in these pages titled ‘Apocalypse now’ authored by the editor of this paper, Arif Nizami. Part of the article in question reads:
‘The rather bookish, albeit well-meaning chairperson of the BISP Sania Nishtar, has been too busy doing a forensic audit to unearth those not entitled, misusing the programme; in the process throwing the baby with the bathwater. There is need not only to increase the outlay for BISP but also to make disbursements on a war footing. ‘
Dr. Sania maintains that, “The BISP disbursement is over Rs 65 billion and there are reasons for the slow disbursement, as I can’t be party to theft. Media stalwarts like your self should support integrity measures”.
The author in reply, stands by his valid critique of BISP’s disbursement, adding that no one is questioning Dr. Nishtar’s integrity, but disbursing only Rs 27bn in July-Dec period (confirmed by Hafeez Shaikh in a meeting with PM which she did not attend) out of close to Rs 200bn, shows misplaced priorities at best and cold feet and incompetence at worse.
