ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Faisal Karim Kundi has said that scholarships are being given to the children of 8.9 million beneficiaries of Benazir Income Support Program (BISP).

Addressing an event organized by National Commission on the Rights of Child here in Islamabad on Wednesday, he said two thousand rupees are being given to the female child and fifteen hundred rupees to boy child. Faisal Karim Kundi said that a nutrition program has also been started with the cooperation of World Food Program at a cost of fifteen billion rupees for the pregnant women and children below the age of two years.

He said a dynamic survey is soon being launched to register more deserving beneficiaries living below the poverty line. He said we have also prepared an exit plan aimed at helping the beneficiaries of BISP stand on their own feet. He said under this scheme, scholarships, vocational training and loans will be provided to the BISP beneficiaries.

PPP Leader Farhatullah Babar appreciated the will demonstrated by National Commission on the Rights of Child for the protection and promotion of rights of children. He suggested that the National Commission on the Rights of Child Act needs to be revisited in order to make the commission more independent.

PML-N leader Mushahid Hussain Syed emphasized the need for a broad national consensus on the rights of children. Chairperson of National Commission on the Rights of Child Afshan Tehseen gave a detailed briefing on the three-year performance of the commission.

She said the commission handled three hundred and thirty-eight complaints relating to the children. She said the complaints were related to early childhood marriages, forced conversions, child labour and torture. She also alluded to the campaigns launched for the awareness of children’s rights.