Minister of State for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Kheal Das Kohistani has demanded that the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) be transferred to provincial governments and has called for action against an alleged corruption mafia within the programme.
His remarks followed disclosures in the National Assembly on Friday that BISP had removed more than 2.25 million beneficiaries from its records and suspended payments to over 800,000 others.
Speaking to the media, Kohistani said mechanisms already exist to act against the misuse of public funds, and that a large number of corruption complaints originate from Sindh. He alleged that agents and government employees extract money from beneficiaries at various stages, including at the time of withdrawal.
The minister urged the relevant institutions to take action against those responsible and to recover funds paid to fake and ineligible beneficiaries. He held BISP and the officials concerned responsible for the alleged corruption. He said the programme, valued at more than Rs800 billion, should move from the federal government to the provinces, which he argued could manage it more effectively and should bear its financial burden.
During question hour, the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division told the National Assembly that 2,259,404 beneficiaries were removed from BISP between July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026. Payments to more than 800,000 additional beneficiaries were suspended.
An audit report identified 140,488 government employees and their family members as BISP beneficiaries during 2019-20. It also stated that more than Rs712 million had been recovered from fake and ineligible beneficiaries.
Of this, over Rs545 million was recovered through the FIA and more than Rs21 million from BISP employees. The ministry also reported receiving 55,579 complaints in the previous fiscal year concerning unauthorised deductions from beneficiaries’ funds, embezzlement and misappropriation.