By Asim Hussain
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Saturday that Ehsaas Cash Emergency Programme was reflection of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s feeling for the labour, working class and the poor segments of the society facing financial hardships owing to ongoing lockdown in the wake of spread of coronavirus.
This she said during her visit to a cash distribution centre in the Federal Capital to distribute cash emergency grant among the deserving families. She said that it was the vision of the Prime Minister to set up a welfare state in line with the model of State of Madina Munawwara.
She said that Islam stresses on human rights and protection of vulnerable segments of the society and this programme was manifestation of that feelings for the poor. She said that under the programme 12 million vulnerable families were being provided cash assistance and so far over 8,15,000 deserving families have been provided the cash grant.
The SAPM said that transparency has been ensured in Ehsaas Cash Emergency Programme and no money has been wasted on advertisements for self-projection of the rulers, as was the practice in the past. She said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was personally monitoring the process of cash distribution and efforts were being made to facilitate the people by removing hurdles.
She asked the handful elements in the trading community who were minting money at the cost of the consumers to focus on serving the humanity at this difficult time as this was not time of earning undue profit. She appreciated the philanthropists for contributing in Prime Minister’s Corona Relief Programme and thanked the volunteers in helping the government in ensuring delivery of ration at the doorstep of the deserving people.
She said that Pakistani nation has always faced the adversities with courage and transformed challenges into opportunities and this time it would do the same with national unity and harmony. She said that in Islamabad 27 centres have been set up for distribution of cash grant among the 43,000 deserving families in the first phase. Replying to media persons’ questions, she said that this was time of social distancing to defeat the spread of the virus.
She said that the Cash Emergency Programme is comprised of three phases. In the next phase, cash would the distributed among those registered under Kifalat programme whereas in the third phase cash would be disbursed among the below poverty line families whose bread earners lost jobs due to ongoing lockdown. Lists of these 50 thousand families had been provided by the district administration in all parts of the country, the SAPM said.
