PM to launch Ehsaas Qarz-i-Hasna Scheme next month

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Prime Minister Imran Khan will launch the Ehsaas Qarz-i-Hasna Scheme and the Asset Transfer Scheme under the umbrella of "Ehsaas" Program next month. The decision was taken during a briefing by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Safety Nets and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar, on the status of implementation of the Ehsaas programme. Under the Ehsaas Qarz-i-Hasna Scheme, over 80,000 loans would be disbursed each month among youth and women enabling them to undertake their own business ventures and help their families extricate from poverty trap. Appreciating the efficacy of the existing program, the prime minister approved injection of an additional amount of Rs. 05 billion to the existing fund so that the program is launched in collaboration of the existing partners of Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund. Ehsaas is a comprehensive and multifaceted program with 115 policies under four pillars. These include addressing elite capture and making the government system work to create equality; safety nets for disadvantaged segments of the population; jobs and livelihoods; and human capital development. Ehsaas is a inter-sectoral program to be implemented by 26 federal agencies, four provinces and special areas. Dr Sania briefed the Prime Minister about timelines to implement those Ehsas projects and policies for which the Division of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety and its attached departments have responsibility. The timeline of implementation of the Kifalat program and the manner in which financial and digital inclusion of women will be enabled by October this year and the transformative changes in the BISP cash transfer system that are currently underway. Earlier, Imran Khan said Ehsas Programme is the commencement of a Jihad to alleviate poverty and bring the destitute people above the line of poverty. The prime minister launched a grand Poverty Alleviation Programme under the title of “Ehsas”. Addressing the ceremony, the premier said that launching of the programme is reversion to Pakistan ideology under which founding fathers had decided to establish a true Islamic welfare state. PM Khan said the newly-launched ‘Ghurbat Mitao Programme’ was the first steps towards treading the path of humanity. He underlined that it was a crusade to rise for ridding society of poverty to the core. He stated that the government would also extend legal help to the needy under its new programme.