BISP finalises plan to launch health insurance programme'

ISLAMABAD (December 14, 2010) : Chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), Farzana Raja has said that BISP has finalised preparations to launch health insurance programme for the poor throughput Pakistan, and necessary measures are being taken in this regard on urgent basis.The health insurance scheme would be launched in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, while a series of meetings between BISP management and ministers of the departments of health, finance, planning and development commission and law department of the province would be held shortly, Farzana Raja said while talking to Zahir Ali Shah, President PPP, KP who called upon her at BISP Secretariat, on Monday.Farzana Raja said that the consultation process would be followed by her meetings with all concerned provincial ministers so that the exercise may be helping to assess priorities in the context of the real needs of the province. She informed the provincial head of PPP that under BISP, various ceremonies including distribution of cheques to BISP Waseela-e-Haq beneficiaries & inauguration of vocational training under Waseela-e-Rozgar initiative, would be held in different areas of the province soon.She told provincial office bearer of PPP that government is aware of the hardships of the poor people of KP as being a forefront in the war against terror. To redress these problems, she said, Waseela-e-Haq and Waseela-e-Rozgar schemes for registered beneficiaries of BISP have already been launched in the province and health insurance would be a new valuable addition to these pro-poor initiatives. Syed Zahir Ali Shah, on the occasion, lauded the services of BISP for the downtrodden and apprised her about the menace of terror and growing socio-economic problems in the province.