ISLAMABAD: The Council of Common Interests (CCI) has agreed to launch afive-year project worth Rs350 billion to control malnutrition and stuntedgrowth among children in the country.
This decision was taken during a CCI meeting presided over by PrimeMinister Imran Khan on Wednesday. The chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were also present on the occasion, astatement issued by the PM Media Wing said.
The PM noted that energy issues carried a national impact and it wasnecessary that a consensus was developed among the provinces where awin-win result was achieved for the benefit of the people of Pakistan.
It was agreed that the cost of the five-year project would be sharedequally between the federal government and provinces (around Rs175 billioneach).
The project titled ‘Tackling Malnutrition Induced Stunting in Pakistan’will target 30pc of the total population of the country with 15 millionwomen of reproductive age group and 3.9 million children under the age of 2years through nutrition interventions, the statement read.
Keeping in view the importance of developing a consensus on energy issuesof the country, it was decided that the next meeting of the council will becalled in the first month of next year to finalize issues related to costsof electricity, gas and fuel and also to resolve water related issues.
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The CCI agreed that the federal government will provide for nutritionsupplementary commodities, capacity building of new & existing healthcareworkers, besides research & monitoring, while the provinces will contributetowards the implementation through involvement of existing lady healthworkers (LHWs), community health workers, target population identification,programme management, institutional arrangement, evaluation and datasharing.
Meanwhile, the CCI considered the request of the KP government for one-timepermission to swap/substitute arrangement of one exploration block withanother prospective block within the province. The meeting accorded theone-time approval for the swap with the condition that commitments accruingout of previous award of block should be completed and the PetroleumDivision should incorporate a time limit for such swap so that futurerequests were catered for.
The CCI also reviewed implementation status of previous decisions.
