PPP uproar as PTI mulls changing BISP name

SUKKUR/ISLAMABAD/MULTAN: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has strongly criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government after reports emerged the centre was mulling removing the name of late former prime minister Benazir Bhutto from an eponymous poverty reduction plan.The consternation comes a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan, during a meeting with members of the Grand Democratic Alliance in Ghotki, was quoted as suggesting the name of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) — the largest social safety net programme of its kind in Pakistan — would be changed.The BISP was launched in 2008 by then-prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on the advice of former president Asif Ali Zardari. The programme’s name is a tribute to Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007. Khan’s suggestion was pounced upon by the PPP leadership on Sunday, with party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and veteran politician Khursheed Shah leading the charge on Sunday.Bilawal slammed the Premier’s suggestion, telling reporters in Shikarpur that first they will change the name, then they will cut funding, and eventually, they will end the programme altogether.Speaking to the media in Sukkur, Khursheed Shah said: “Shaheed Benazir Bhutto made sacrifices not just for the party but for the entire country. Imran Khan wants to remove the former premier’s name from BISP, which is shameful. There are apprehensions that these ‘Naya Pakistan’ people [may also] remove Quaid-e-Azam’s image from currency.”Other PPP leaders also vowed to resist any moves to rename the programme. Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, said the BISP could not be renamed unless the law was amended. “Kaptaan you are the PM not the King please try to understand law before making commitments,” he tweeted.Benazir’s elder daughter, Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, tweeted: “What else does one expect from Puppet khan and his grand alliance of delusion? It would save a lot of time and resources if Puppet governments didn’t attempt to re label and really badly recycle the Benazir Income Support Programme and instead just accepted its glory (credit @AAliZardari) and continue to fund it.”PTI leaders doubled down on the Prime Minister’s views. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry hit back at Shah, calling on him to “stop selling the names of Benazir and Bhutto” and accused him of being “the main person responsible for destruction of public sector institutions”. In a tweet, Chaudhry alleged the PPP leader was head of the committee “which inducted incompetent cronies on political basis in various institutions and departments” and “political inductions in the national institutions destroyed them like termites”. Sindh Governor Imran Ismail also supported the Prime Minister’s suggestion. However, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he personally was not in favour of changing the name of BISP adding it was a legal matter. “There is nothing in the name. The main thing is performance — how many people could benefit from the programme,” he stated. However, he also alleged the PPP were “misusing” the BISP.

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