Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Imran Khan as to what else he had done to reduce poverty in the country apart from ‘changing’ the name of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), launched by the PPP government almost a decade ago, to help the poverty-stricken people of the country, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
In a statement, Bilawal said people were well aware that much talked about Ehsaas Kifalat Programme was actually the new name of BISP.
Bilawal said his party had launched the poverty alleviation programme when the entire world was confronted with the financial crisis. “Actually BISP was devised as per the vision of my mother, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto (BB),” he said and claimed that by launching the programme, the PPP government had set a precedent for other countries to follow.
“So much so that international organisations today acknowledge the significance of the BISP,” the PPP chairman said, and added calling ‘Ehsaas Kifalat Programme’ a new one even after admitting in the Supreme Court that name of the BISP had been changed was an attempt to deceive the people.
He made it clear to PM Imran that by changing the names of welfare projects, he could not diminish the love people had in their hearts for BB.
Bilawal claimed that during the last three years of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government marked by ‘economic catastrophe’, the PPP government in Sindh not only imparted skills to millions of women of rural Sindh but also gave them interest-free loans so that they could start their businesses. “The Sindh government through its pro-people policies has not only been able to increase per capita income above other constituent units of Pakistan but has also reduced the poverty rate by 7.6 per cent, which clearly demonstrates that PPP has delivered in the province,” he concluded.