The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) is a federal unconditional cash transfer poverty reduction program in Pakistan.

[9] The Benazir Income Support Programme was established in 2008 by Yousaf Raza Gillani who took the advice of President Asif Ali Zardari.

The program's name is a tribute to former Prime Minister and wife of President Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007.

[11] Along with the economic development aims of the program, BISP also seeks to empower women by presenting cash transfers directly to female members of households.

[12] The Benazir Income Support Programme is planning to launch a new initiative that encourages human capital development through a conditional cash transfer.

The program also operates in the federally administered regions of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and the Islamabad Capital Territory.

[12] In its first year of operation, recipients of BISP cash transfers were identified and selected by Parliamentarians through a process of recommendation.

[12] The Poverty Scorecard has been approved by the World Bank and requires families to answer 13 questions regarding assets and expenses in a survey.

[15] The BISP programmes also seems to be moving to this direction given that that Waseela-e-Taleem and Nashonuma component are both conditional requiring beneficiaries' to change both health and education seeking behaviour.

The Unconditional Cash Transfer component of the BISP previously renamed Kifalat, is also being built up to encourage savings which would be matched by through government subsidies.

[16] Some experts have argued that attaching conditionalities to social safety net programmes moves them away from the conception of Negative Income Tax initially proposed by Milton Friedman by assuming that it is behaviour on part of the beneficiaries which is to blame for their poverty while ignoring deep rooted structural inequalities in society which may limit individual's ability to effectively participate in the labour Market.

[10] It has been pointed out that there is a disproportionate number of families receiving BISP aid in geographic areas where the ruling Pakistan People's Party dominates.

For example, in the Prime Minister's hometown of Multan, there is twice the number of people receiving BISP payments than in Lahore, the opposition party's stronghold.