A BISP audit report covering the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP)—Pakistan’s main federal cash-support scheme for low-income households—for financial year 2024-25 has found illegal payments of more than Rs25 billion made against 600,000 bogus Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs). The reports, now public, also list further irregularities in programme payments and funds.
Fake CNICs and rule breaches
The audit tied the largest finding to payments cleared against identity cards it described as bogus, putting the illegal outlay at more than Rs25 billion across those 600,000 CNICs. Separately, it said 7,020 women received Rs100 million through incorrect identification, in breach of BISP rules that are meant to confirm who qualifies for support.
Those findings matter because CNIC-linked verification is how the programme is supposed to reach the right households. When cards are fake or identification is wrong, money meant for eligible families can leave the system without the intended social-protection effect.
Scholarships, PMT and cash transfers
The audit also examined education-related and targeting-related streams. It reported Rs130 million paid as scholarships into benami (nominee or proxy) accounts linked to five major universities, and called those payouts illegal.
Under the Proxy Means Test (PMT)—the poverty-scoring method used to rank households—it recorded irregularities of Rs530 million. It further noted that Rs970 million due under Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT), payments linked to meeting set conditions such as schooling or health visits, had not been recovered.
Other funds and international agreements
Irregularities of Rs1.79 billion were reported in Poverty Graduation funds, the pot meant to help families move from short-term aid toward more stable livelihoods. The BISP audit report additionally raised questions over agreements worth billions of rupees that BISP officials signed with the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, the UN children’s agency. The published summary does not settle those questions; it flags them for scrutiny.
Taken together, the public audit picture for 2024-25 is one of large illegal CNIC-linked payments plus smaller but still substantial problems in scholarships, targeting, recoveries, graduation funds, and high-value partnership deals.
Aasan alfaaz mein
BISP ke 2024-25 ke audit mein 600,000 jaali CNIC par 25 arab rupay se zyada ki ghair qanooni adaygiyan mili hain. Universities se linked benami accounts mein 13 crore rupay scholarships ke naam par gaye. Kuch paisa galat pehchaan aur doosre funds mein bhi ghalat tariqe se use hua. Yeh paise asl mustehq logon ki madad ke liye hone chahiye the.
