Chitral: Prime Minister Imran Khan has exuberantly launched the Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme’, with the objective of providing houses to five million homeless people.

Though noble in intentions and perfect in compassion, but the five million dollar question is “will this solve any purpose”?. Other than providing houses to a minuscule fraction of the homeless, it will leave the other far more deserving majority high and dry.

It is just not fair to gratify individuals and call it a collective welfare scheme. The five million beneficiaries are more likely to be not the actual grass root level derservants but those who know the procedures and make their way through.

It is virtually not possible to sift the deserving ones from amongst the masses. ‘Benazir Income Support Program’ (BISP) is a glaring example of how such projects should not be undertaken. Besides the major part of the money being bungled by the managers, the little that is doled off is done in the most unjust manner. Extremely deserving people look on in awe and disgust when well off people grab the cards and benefit from it. There is no way to check this. Corruption and misappropriation is in the blood of Pakistanis. We must devise a system that checks them, instead of giving them more opportunities to indulge in corruption and injustice.

It is a humble suggestion to stop the ‘Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme’ and ‘Benazir Income Support Program’ in their track and divert the money for the collective benefit of the poor instead of selective gratifications as envisaged in both the above schemes. .. CN report, 22 Apr 2019