ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired a meeting of the Policy Committee overseeing the Prime Minister’s COVID Relief Fund in Islamabad on Monday to review the fund utilization details.
The COVID Relief Fund was established in March 2020 to raise funds for COVID-19 affectees.
The fund received generous donations from within Pakistan and Overseas.
Rs 4.8 billion accumulated in the fund of which Rs 1.08 billion was donated by international donors and Rs 3.8 billion was contributed domestically.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Imran Khan had publicly announced two policies with respect to the COVID Relief Fund, committing that these funds would be disbursed through the Ehsaas Emergency Cash to assist COVID-19 job loss affectees.
Secondly, a “Matching Funds Policy” was announced which stipulated that for every rupee donated into the fund, Rs 4 would be matched by the government. To fulfill this promise, Rs 19.55 billion have been matched by the government—in total Rs 24.43 billion.
This amount has supported two million families, each of which received Rs 12,000 each as the Ehsaas Emergency Cash through this funding stream (out of the total of 15 million who received the Ehsaas Emergency cash).
There has been little transparency and trackability in the use of donor funds in the past. However, the PM’s COVID Relief Fund has set a new precedent, in terms of transparency and track-ability of donated funds.
“Pakistanis are the most giving nation. Their generosity is legendary. I want to give them the confidence that we are fully transparent with the use of all donor funds we receive,” said the prime minister.
The Poverty Alleviation & Social Safety Division is the administrator of the fund.
To ensure robust governance and oversight of the fund, the prime minister established a Policy Committee to oversee appropriate usage of the proceeds including means of identification of the beneficiaries and the parameters of their selection.
The policy committee was also meant to decide about the means of disbursement and to take any appropriate decisions for the collection of donations, maintenance, and administration of the fund, and related matters.
