ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister’s Youth Programme (PMYP) on Tuesday announced that its chairperson Maryam Nawaz has no financial and administrative control over disbursing of loans by banks, as pre and post-disbursement of amounts follow strict internal and external audit regime to ensure transparency.
A spokesperson of the PMYP strongly rebutted the allegations levelled by Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan of exclusively handing over of Rs 100 billion youth business loan scheme to its chairperson, Mohtarma Maryam Nawaz, by the PM.
Contradicting the allegations, the spokesperson said PTI’s chief lacks knowledge about independence of administrative and financial management of the implementing partners of PMYP and asked Khan to carefully read and understand contours of Prime Minister’s Youth Programme before levelling such allegations for mere political point scoring.
National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and First Women Bank (FWB) are transparently implementing the Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan Scheme and disbursing loans to potential young entrepreneurs through their own financial resources, the spokesperson explained. The national exchequer has not allocated a single penny directly to PMYP for rolling out PMYBLS.
The spokesperson further explained that the government of Pakistan has only earmarked Rs 5 billion as a difference to be paid to the banks with credit tenure of eight (8) years including one-year grace period.
The spokesperson maintained that the banks are accountable only to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and are entirely independent in processing, approving and rejecting the loan applications. Thus, the chairperson PMYP has no financial and administrative control over the disbursing of loans by banks, it was further maintained.
The spokesperson explained that similarly the approved budgetary amount of Rs 4.0 billion and Rs 1.2 billion respectively for prime minister’s laptop and prime minister’s fee reimbursement schemes have been allocated directly to Higher Education Commission (HEC) and not to the PMYP.
The HEC as an implementing agency for both the schemes disburses the amount after following the laid down criteria stipulated by the ministry of finance, the spokesperson further explained.
Explaining the Prime Minister’s Youth Skill Development Scheme, the spokesperson said an amount of Rs 800 million has been allocated directly to National Vocational & Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) as an implementing agency to impart skill development training to 25,000 youth across federation including Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).