The president while taking serious note of the agonies being faced by the pensioners in collecting their monthly pensions gave these directions at a meeting especially convened for the purpose in the Presidency. The meeting was informed that pensioners drawing less than Rs 10,000 per month would be provided free smart cards.
The auditor general of Pakistan, finance secretary, National Bank of Pakistan president, NADRA chairman, National Savings director general and President’s Secretary General Salman Farouqui attended the meeting. President’s spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the president had expressed deep concern for the pensioners who had to line up for days to collect their pensions besides showing attested certificates that they were alive even though the pensioners, including disabled pensioners on wheelchairs or infirm, were required to be present to collect their pensions. He said that the president had directed NADRA chairman to work on a comprehensive mechanism to facilitate pensioners by issuing them biometric smart cards so that they could draw their pension from any biometric-enabled ATM of any bank and were saved from the botheration of long queues and inordinate delays. The spokesman said that NADRA chairman, while briefing the meeting about the authority’s pension disbursement programme (PDP) using smart ID and e-sahulat branchless banking scheme, said that in order to facilitate pensioners, NADRA intends to launch in two phases a PDP using its biometric verification system (BVS).
In the first phase, all the pensioners across the country will be enrolled at NADRA swift registration centres and will be issued smart national identification cards (SNICs). In the second phase, the pensioners will be able to draw their pensions from any of NADRA’s e-sahulat branchless banking franchises. Giving details of the mechanism, NADRA chairman said that currently there were over 6,000 franchises across the country and more franchises could be added based on the market need. The pensioner along with his/her SNIC will visit his/her nearest e-sahulat franchise where he/she will be verified by NADRA BVS before disbursement of the pension, he said.
He said that with these smart cards, the holder would not have to provide proof that he was living, because the card would only accept thumb impression of a living person. He said that holder of the card won’t be required to withdraw the pension amount in one go. He will be able to withdraw any amount at any time at any biometric-enabled ATM of any bank. Every National Bank branch will have biometric ATMs, he informed the meeting. The spokesman said that the meeting decided to ensure that disabled pensioners will be paid pension amount at his home of residence and that similar convenient measures will be introduced for pensioners receiving pension through post-office branches. He said that the meeting directed NADRA chairman to submit proposals to the cabinet in consultation with the auditor general, Finance Ministry and National Bank president by August 14, for its consideration.
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Quelle/Source: Pakistan Daily Times, 29.07.2012
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