Senate Committee Acknowledges PBM Role For Treating 54,000 Patients Since 2018

Senate Standing Committee on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety in a meeting held here Monday paid tribute to the team of Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM) for taking steps to provide relief to the poor

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Feb, 2021 ) :Senate Standing Committee on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety in a meeting held here Monday paid tribute to the team of Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM) for taking steps to provide relief to the poor.

The committee was chaired by Senator Dr. Jehanzeb Jamaldini at PBM head office.

The committee acknowledged the services of PBM which has saved the lives of 54,000 patients at a cost of Rs 6.4 billion since the year 2018.

The committee discussed in detail the future plans of PBM as well as the public relief measures, poverty reduction strategy, steps for increasing literacy rate, provision of medical treatment and number of schools to be established in order to eliminate child labor.

Managing Director, PBM, Aon Abbas Bapi and other officials briefed the committee via video link about the contribution of PBM and said that the PBM was established in 1992 under the 1991 Act with its headquarter in Islamabad.

The agency has set up 154 ??district offices across the country, including in the former FATA, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The committee was informed that since October 2018, the institution has saved the lives of 54,000 patients at a cost of Rs 6.4 billion.

An amount of Rs 321 million was spent on the treatment of 4191 thalassemia patients in different parts of the country.

While Rs 128 million was spent on hearing impaired children between the ages of one and five years. Around Rs. 15,00,000 are spent on each child with hearing loss, they said.

Four private hospitals along with one government have been selected for the treatment.

Responding to a question from the chairman of the committee, it was informed that hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were not included as there were no ENT specialists for the disease.

Chairman Committee, Dr. Jahanzeb Jamaldini observed that young children are kept in the houses for household chores and incidents of child abuse are also increasing.

He emphasized that such institutions should take steps to protect child labor.

The committee was informed that this is the work of the concerned agencies and does not fall under the purview of this institution.

Senator Samina Saeed said that the number of begging children is increasing day by day across the country.

She urged the concerned departments to take steps by forming a joint committee of both the houses.

Senator Lt. Gen. (Retd) Abdul Qayyum said that according to the report of former Chairman HEC Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman, around 25 million children are out of school, 32% of school going children run away, there is no electricity and water in the 40 percent of rural schools while 49% have no latrines.

MD PBM, Aon Abbas Bapi said that the Prime Minister of Pakistan was eagerly focusing on Ehsaas and the social welfare of people.

According to the vision of the state of Madina, the Prime Minister launched the shelter (Panahgah) project to ensure that no one left hungry in the country.

The present government has increased the budget for medical treatment and other welfare initiatives for the poor from Rs 5 billion to Rs 6.1 billion, which is planned to be increased to Rs 8 billion.

He said that the special budget should be allocated for the huge expenditure incurred on treatment of bone marrow, kidney transplant and cancer patients on which the committee recommended allocating additional budget for the treatment of patients undergoing high cost surgery.

The committee was informed that the annual cost of a single shelter is Rs. 50 million. Shelters are also receiving donations and four out of five shelters in Islamabad Capital Territory were running on donations.

There are also five shelters in Karachi. The organization is receiving effective donations for shelter.

Senator Dr. Rukhsana Zubair emphasized that there should be a system under which the data of missing children should be collected at one place responding to which MD PBM said that a lost children's application will be developed in collaboration with the concerned agencies which will contain the data of missing children. He told the committee that instead of expanding orphanages, widows were being given more support so that they could better raise their children.

The committee directed to formulate a mechanism as soon as possible.

Senator Fida Mohammad said that ice addiction was spreading rapidly in the society and especially Hayatabad and Karachi were badly affected.

Chairman Committee, Senator Jamaldini said that Hepatitis B and C were spreading rapidly in the country like the Corona epidemic and steps should be taken to control it.

The Standing Committee recommended that the budget of the institution should be increased so that this spreading disease in the country can be brought under control as soon as possible.

Senator Rukhsana Zuberi said that if there is more than one patient in a household, then PBM should amend its policy and take steps to treat all the patients in the household.

The committee was informed that as per the directions of the Prime Minister, steps were being taken to reduce poverty in the country, increase literacy rate and provide better treatment facilities to the people.

The committee was informed that soon a pilot project of Widows and Orphans Welfare Program is being launched in seven districts in which 100 widows will be selected from each district under Ehsas program. Rs. 8000 for education of one child and 12000 for more than one will be provided.

This program will be later spread across the country.

The committee paid tribute to the relief services rendered by MD PBM and his team to the poor.

The members of the committee said that the services rendered by the organization to the poor people were commendable.

Every possible step will be taken to solve the problems of the institution and the committee is ready to assist at all times.

The standing committee recommended further steps to expand scope of relief activities to the poor.