April 5, 2020 -Islamabad: Addressing a press conference with Press Information Department, Dr. Sania Nishtar, Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation explained beneficiary identification process, SMS campaign & its process flow, district level verification procedure, wealth profiling criteria, & payment mechanism designed for Ehsaas Emergency Cash Program. She briefed the media that the payment process under the program would start this week to support the vulnerable segments of society, affected due to lockdown amid Coronavirus threat. This program will benefit the deserving people from all the four provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit Baltistan. “Existing 4.5 million Kafaalat beneficiaries, who were getting regular cash transfer of 2000 rupees per month, would be given additional one thousand rupees; hence, they too would get a tranche of Rs. 12,000 covering four months. Further, higher eligibility or poverty threshold would be considered to identify 4 million beneficiaries through the national socioeconomic databases, while another 3.5 million people would come from districts”, she added. Footage here