ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday issued a list of over 2,000 high-ranking government officials who or whose spouses were getting monthly stipend under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), meant for the poorest of the poor, and referred their cases to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Of the 2,037 officials, two hold grade-22, 47 grade-20 and 335 grade-18 in different government departments.

The list shared with the media by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Accountability Shahzad Akbar in a joint press conference with SAMP on Information Dr Firdous Ashig Awan, also carries the names of four grade-17 officials of the BISP who have been dismissed from service. Most of the government bene-ficiaries are associated with education departments and are school principals or teachers.

There are cases in which two wives of a senior government official had benefited from the programme.

Two grade-22 of ficers are: Mian Arif Hussain working at the Azad Jammu and Kashmir High Court and Mohammad Imran, cabinet secretary of Gilgit Baltistan government. Imran was getting funds for his two wives.

During the press conference, Mr Akbar said the government had also written to the chief secretaries and the Establishment Division to take departmental action against, and recover funds from, the government officers who had benefited from BISP.

It had also been decided to ask the FIA to register criminal cases against the officers and others who assisted themin drawingof BISPfundsbecause the expenditure was carried out from the federal budget, the SAPM explained.

He said a government analysis had revealed that as many as 140,000 government employees or their spouseshad received BISP funds.

A major chunk of the 140,000 people were government employees of grade 1 to 16 while the rest (2,037) were of ficers of grade 17 to 22.

`This all was done either because of collaboration with BISP officials or due to negligence,` Mr Akbar said.

He also gave a breakdown of the casesidendhedacrossthecountryand said the number of government employees whose spouses f raudulently benefited from the BISP was nine in Azad Kashmir and 40 in GilgitBaltistan. As many as 554 officers or their spouses benefited from the programme in Balochistan, 342 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 101 in Punjab and 938 in Sindh. `Sindh again stood on the victory stand,` said Dr Awan.

A total of 39 employees of grade 1 to 16 and four ofhcers of grade 17 and above who worked for the BISP itself have benefited from the programme.

Among employees of the federal government, this number is 48.

Last month, SAPM on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar had said the governmenthad conducted a forensic data analysis and identified 820,165 undeserving people who were availing the BISP assistance.

Launched in July 2008, the federal government-funded BISP is Pakistan`s largest social safety net, catering for women and benefiting around 5.4 million people, according to data released in 2016.

According to a decision of the federal cabinet last month, an approval was given to remove 820,165 beneficiaries f rom BISP database, describing them as `undeserving`.

The changes in the BISP database were made in the wake of reservations expressed by some cabinet members in the previous meetings that the supporters of opposition parties, especially those backing the Pakistan Peoples Party, were benefiting from the programme while those belonging to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf were being ignored.

Dr Nishtar had apprised the cabinet that in view of some complaints and the need to update BISP data, the survey was being reviewed with the helpof the National Database and Registration Authority.

She said during the review, some aspects were being looked into. For example, she added, it was being ascertained whether the family of a beneficiary had any motorcycle or car or whether a spouse was a government employee.

The cabinet was further told that those who had over 12 acres of land also did not fall in the category of `deserving` people. After the exclusion of 820,165 people, really deserving people would be included in the programme, Dr Nishtar said.

The BISP record said of total 820,165 beneficiaries removed from its database, 14,730 were government employees or employees of railways, post office and the BISP despite the fact that the facility was not meant for government servants. As many as 127,826 beneficiaries are those whose spouses are government employees.

It said 153,302 beneficiaries were those who had travelled abroad once and 195,364 were those whose spouses have travelled abroad once. The num-ber of beneficiaries who have travelled abroad more than once is said to be 10,476. Similarly, 166,319 spouses have travelled abroad more than once.

The BISP removed 692 people from its database because they own one or more than one vehicle and 43,746 were deprived of the facility because their spouses have one or more than one car.

A person who can pay Rs1,000 monthly bill for a telephone is not eligible to get monthly stipend from the programme and therefore 24,546 people were removed for f alling into this category. Similarly, 155,767 were thrown out of the database as their spouses paid Rs1,000 or more than that telephone [PTCL, mobile] bill.

For applying passport via executive centres, 666 beneficiaries were excluded and 580 were removed as their spouses have applied for their passports from executive centres.

A total of 36,970 people were dropped from the list of beneficiaries because three or more than three members of their family had applied for computerised national identity card while paying executive fee.