Dr. Sania Nishtar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation paid surprise visits to Islamabad based branchless banking retailer outlets of BISP’s partner commercial bank in Blue Area, F-8 and G-9 areas of Islamabad. The visit aimed to check the working of their officials while dealing with registered deserving women. Recently, BISP has introduced quarterly payments to women through biometric verification at branchless banking retailers. Dr. Nishtar sat with the women present at the outlets to collect cash grants and discussed with them the problems they were facing while receiving their compensations. This was part of her visits to enquire about the quality of Ehsaas programmes, witnessing and observing on-the-ground situation without prior intimation. The footage can be accessed here.

Later, she visited Utility Store situated at G-9 in Islamabad together with Chairman and Managing Director, Utility Stores Corporation to see the quality of food and non-food items that are provided to the public and specially to the poor, at comparatively cheaper rates than the market. During her visit, she appreciated USC’s commitment in line with the Prime Minister’s directives to ensure the provision of basic commodities to the poverty-stricken families on subsidized and cheaper rates. The footage can be accessed here.