The fallacy of individual support programs

CHITRAL: It has been discovered now that about 0.8 million beneficiaries of the ‘Benazir Income Support Program’ were those who did not deserve the money because they were well off, travelling abroad, serving in beneficial appointments, earning good salaries in jobs etc. Why has it taken so long a time to make this ‘discovery’ is another question, but the basic point is that the program itself was conceptually wrong to begin with. how can the government gratify individuals through paying them free money.

This is a silly concept every way you look at it. Free alms money dish out and free lunch (langars and dastarkhwans) are arranged by individuals and charity organisations. The government has no business to do that, nor can it rightly do so as has been proven by the latest revelations in BISP program discrepancies. Even if the money was distributed fairly, how many people have benefited from it? How about those who deserved more and were left out? As a matter of fact there is no clear cut definition of a poor person. If a person presents himself as poor, there would be ten poorer than him. There is no end to this. How do you filter out the genuine ones. It is virtually not possible.

It is virtually not possible to gratify individuals fairly and squarely. This program and others like it e.g giving homes to selected individuals etc should be dropped immediately and instead the govt should use the money for collective welfare of the poor, like subsidizing wheat, rice and other basic every day necessaries which the poorest of the poor need without any exception .. CN report, 26 Dec 2019

2 thoughts on “The fallacy of individual support programs

  1. With the scale of corruption in Pakistan and the absence of accountability, such like projects can not be truly feasible. Almost a million people have been identified as falsely enrolling themselves in BISP. Is only removing their names from the list enough? or do they deserve strict punishment for this immoral act? Looks like nothing will happen to these people and as long as the program and other such like programs continue, the associated corruption will continue too.

  2. Dear editor…thanks..one thing beyond my thoughts and imaginations that in BSP it would have been a national support program rather than BSP,.in the era of former premier M Nawaz Sharif so many national projects were running on his or his brother,s name…I have my self witnessed that a convoy of trucks were heading to Chitral for flood effectees with banners in front and sides of truck as (Help from Nawaz and Shahbaz sharif)
    and Now Imran Khan Ehsas program..I thing if they are helping from thier pockets than well and good but I dot think so ,its from national treasures..I am in perplexity….

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