ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran’s Khan relief fund, which was created on March 30 to assist the government in mitigating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, could not attract generous donations as only Rs225 million were deposited in the fund in its first 11 days.
The data of the fund was routinely shared by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) with officials of the Ministry of Finance, Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and Ehsaas Programme. According to the data, as of April 10 – the date of the last update – the total amount in the fund stood at Rs225 million.
Analysts told this scribe that a possible explanation for this low figure lies in the fact that a number of private organisations and individuals are actively participating in relief activities themselves, therefore, they have few reasons to donate to the prime minister’s fund.
It is worth mentioning here that similar programmes introduced in the past had also received disappointing responses. The dams fund created by PM Imran and the Supreme Court (SC) to collect $12 billion for the construction of Diamer-Bhasha Dam was excessively promoted on multiple media forums, but it could only gather Rs12 billion, including over Rs1.7 billion from expatriate Pakistanis.
