ISLAMABAD – Federal Cabinet has directed the Statistics Division to monitor the prices of items of daily use regularly and brief the cabinet on weekly basis.
Addressing media on cabinet decisions in Islamabad on Wedensday, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhary Fawad Hussain said the Division will monitor and collect data on prices of items of daily use in seventy six markets and forty cities and will submit its report to federal cabinet each week.
The Minister said the cabinet took stock of the issue of list of 172 people in Exit Control List in light of the observations of Supreme Court of Pakistan and decided to send the matter to ECL Review Committee, working under Ministry of Interior. He said the decision of adding or excluding names in the list will be taken according to the recommendations of the Committee which will brief the cabinet next week.
Chaudhary Fawad Hussain said the cabinet also decided to expedite the privatization of five units including Haveli Bahadur Shah, Lakhra Coal Mine, Services Hotel Lahore, divestment of government shares in petroleum companies and K-Electric.
The cabinet also established a committee of Land Bank headed by Defense Minister Pervez Khattak. It will identify 150 prime properties for use in various public sector projects and submit its report to the cabinet in its next meeting. The Minister said 9442 kanals of unused land has been identified at the federal level, 56000 kanal in Punjab and 5258 kanal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa so far.
The Minister said cabinet also accorded approval to three additional posts of judges in Islamabad High Court. It will increase the number of judges from 6 to nine, in addition to Chief Justice.
He said a Poverty Alleviation Coordination Council has been established that will work under Dr. Sania Nishtar. It has been tasked to coordinate the activities of various institutions at federal and provincial level in poverty alleviation.
Chaudhary Fawad Hussain said additional customs duty for offshore exploration companies in order to create a more favorable environment for foreign investment into the country. He said the PTI government aims to levy tax on income, and not on the companies doing investment.
On Karachi, the Information Minister said it is economic hub of the country and people of the city have entrusted the policies of the incumbent government by voting it. He said a high powered Committee has been constituted for the development of the metropolis.
Chaudhary Fawad Hussain said the cabinet approved a sum of 2.8 billion rupees for the construction of FC Headquarters in South and North zones of Balochistan.
The Minister said the export duty on jaggery has been brought down to 2.5 percent to enhance local production and export of the commodity. He said an amount of 123 million euro as loan has been approved for Bus Rapid Transport in Peshawar.
