Were 5,598 women registered as one man’s wives under BISP?

ISLAMABAD – Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Chairperson Senator Rubina Khalid has dismissed reports claiming that 5,598 women were registered as wife of one person under the programme, calling the information misleading and inconsistent with the facts. She clarified that the audit report had identified 5,598 cases of inconsistencies in marital data rather than indicating that one individual was linked to 5,598 spouses. According to Khalid, some sections had taken the audit observations out of context. She said registering multiple wives does not result in additional financial benefits, as each family is entitled to only one payment regardless of the number of wives. The BISP chairperson stated that all programme payments are made only after verification and profiling by NADRA, adding that no beneficiary can receive payments without successful verification. She said the cases under discussion relate to record correction and data profiling and are not linked to financial irregularities. Khalid said the programme completed a fresh verification of its database in June 2025. She noted that BISP’s database contains records of 38.7 million households, and the 5,598 discrepancies identified among approximately 200 million records reflect the effectiveness of the programme’s monitoring and audit mechanisms. She added that BISP has a system in place to correct, verify and recover payments whenever discrepancies are identified before disbursement. She also said the programme’s transparency and effectiveness have been acknowledged in reports by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Aga Khan University. Khalid urged the public to avoid sharing unverified and misleading information regarding the matter.