ISLAMABAD - The government under Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme has so far disbursed cash amount of around Rs158.93 billion among over 13,137,230 lockdown affected persons under different categories.  The Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme was initiated to disburse cash amount of Rs12,000 among the coronavirus lockdown affected persons.  The payment to deserving persons continued through Ehsaas centres across the country.

According to the cash update received on July 23, over Rs71.22 billion has been disbursed among more than 5,885,826 deserving families in Punjab so far while over Rs48.202 billion has been disbursed among more than 3,997,997 families in Sindh.

Over Rs27.016 billion has been disbursed among more than 2,225,741 beneficiaries in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while over  Rs7.910 billion has been disbursed among more than 651,227 persons in Balochistan. In Azad Jammu and Kashmir around Rs2.614 billion have been distributed among over 214,097 persons while around  Rs1.160 billion has been distributed among over 94,996 people in Gilgit Baltistan. Over Rs0.813 billion has been disbursed among more than 67,346 beneficiaries in Islamabad.

‘Sindh Province given 10pc extra share’

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan Thursday said the Sindh province had been given 10 percent extra share against its population ratio, under the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic after receiving excessive applications due to complete lockdown there.

“As per the population ratio, Sindh’s share was around 20 percent, but the federal government under the Ehsaas programme gave over 31 percent,” he said during the question-hour session of the National Assembly.  Under the programme, he said around Rs160 million had so far been disbursed among the people affected due to economic slowdown caused by the virus. An amount of Rs12,000 each needy family had been given across the country.

He said previous government had been doing mere lip servicing to give province their due share, but the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government had practically done, which reflected from the increased share of Sindh in the cash assistance programme and a recently constitutional amendment passed by the Senate to create 13 additional seats in Balochistan Assembly.