PTI government decided to delete over 800,000 names from the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) last month as it had come to their notice that some government officers and their families were also BISP beneficiaries. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Welfare and Poverty Alleviation Sania Nishtar explained that they did this by utilising forensic data as these people were ‘undeserving’.

The more astounding part is that over two thousand top officials of provincial and federal governments were also BISP beneficiaries. According to details shared by ARY News, 2,543 government officials of Grade-17 to Grade-21 were receiving the BISP income support tri-monthly handouts, meant for the poor segments of society.

Sania Nishtar confirmed the news on Twitter.

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Some officers were receiving money in the name of their wives and other members of families, which were registered in the list of the people entitled for income support.

The highest number of undeserving beneficiaries were in Balochistan where 741 registered officials were registered.

In Sindh, 342 officials of grade-18 gained profit from the scheme.

The decision to exclude more than 800,000 people from BISP list was criticised by the PPP. Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto had demanded the government to retract from the decision.