Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday directed the authorities concerned to provide health facilities to the people of former tribal areas on their Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) until they received their Sehat Insaf Cards.
He was chairing a high-level meeting at the Prime Minister’s House to review development work and health facilities to the people of erstwhile FATA.
The meeting was attended by Planning Minister Khusro Bakhtyar, Minister for Power Omar Ayub, Adviser on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, Special Assistant on Health Dr Zafar Ullah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Minister Taimur Jahgra and others.
Meanwhile, it was reported that Prime Minister Imran Khan would launch the Ehsaas Qarz-e-Hasna Scheme and the Asset Transfer Scheme next month under the umbrella of “Ehsaas” programme. Under the Ehsaas Qarz-e-Hasna Scheme, more than 80,000 loans would be disbursed each month among youth and women, enabling them to undertake their own business ventures and help their families extricate from the poverty trap. These loans would be prioritised in the lagging and underdeveloped districts.
Appreciating the efficacy of the existing programme, the prime minister approved injection of an additional amount of Rs 5 billion to the existing fund so that the programme was launched in collaboration with the existing partners of the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund.
Imran to launch Ehsaas implementation programme next month
The decision was made during a briefing by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Safety Nets and Poverty Alleviation (PASS) Dr Sania Nishtar on the status of implementation of the Ehsaas programme. “Ehsaas” is a comprehensive and multifaceted programme with 115 policies under four pillars.
These include addressing elite capture and making the government system work to create equality; safety nets for disadvantaged segments of the population; jobs and livelihoods; and human capital development.
Ehsaas is an inter-sectoral programme to be implemented by 26 federal agencies, four provinces and special areas.
Dr Sania briefed the prime minister on the timelines to implement those Ehsaas projects and policies for which the Division of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety and its attached departments had responsibility.
She also gave details about the demand-side shock-oriented safety net. In addition, details and timelines of the graduation and interest-free loans programme and the new ‘solutions challenge policy’ for lagging districts were also discussed.
Dr Sania also briefed the prime minister on a nutrition initiative to address malnutrition in all its forms, the new socio-economic registry which was being executed by the BISP, the Ehsaas undergraduate student scholarship initiative and plans in the pipeline to extend the education conditional cash transfers for lagging districts.
She informed the premier that in order to protect and ensure social security net to workers in the informal sector, several weekly meetings of labour expert working group had been held. Briefing was also given on the timeline of policy formulation.
Details were shared about the plans to revitalise ‘Trust for Voluntary Organisations’ and to make its governance effective and transparent so that the organisation could be used to upscale successful models in the non-governmental sector.
Dr Sania said that policies concerning various components of Ehsaas programme would be presented before the federal cabinet after June for its approval. The prime minister appreciated the progress being made by Dr Sania and her team, and approved the creation of Ehsaas Steering Committee during the meeting. The committee would be headed by the prime minister himself.
