ISLAMABAD – Federal Government has decided to spend 290 billion rupees onagriculture, with 18 big schemes to be launched in the next five years.
Briefing media on meeting of federal cabinet in Islamabad tonight, Ministerfor Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said PTI leaderJahangir Tareen gave a detailed briefing to the cabinet on agriculture.
He said during last 8 years, agricultural spending reduced by 60 percentnegatively impacting this crucial sector of economy. The Minister said ouragricultural imports have reached to 4 billion dollars, which include 2billion dollars of edible oil bill. He said the cabinet decided to raiseawareness among people to reduce the consumption of Vanaspati oil athouseholds to save precious foreign exchange on import of edible oil.
Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said in the new agri schemes, focus will be made onincreasing per capita production, judicious use of water, and increasedaccess to farming credits. He said as direction of Prime Minister ImranKhan Livestock and fisheries sector will be given special attention as theyhave a huge export potential.
The Minister said the cabinet took into view the issue of inflated gasbills and discussed measures to rectify the situation. He said 3.2 milliongas consumers have been affected by exaggerated gas bills. The cabinetdecided that an amount of 2.5 billion rupees will be returned to gasconsumers for inflated bills.
The cabinet expressed sorrow and grief over the tragic incident ofterrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand in which fifty persons weremartyred. The Minister said we need dialogue among civilizations to counterthe hatred spread in West against Islam and Muslims. He said survival ofhuman beings is only possible if they live in peaceful co-existence.
Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said cabinet decided to make necessary arrangementsfor the upcoming visit of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad willvisit Pakistan on the occasion of 23rd Mach, Pakistan Day. He said it is acontinuation of visits of important world leaders to Pakistan after PTIcame to power. He said Mahathir’s visit to Pakistan is a great honor for us.
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The Minister said the cabinet decided that heads of regulatory bodies,corporations, and attached departments of ministries will be selected onmerit and a preliminary committee headed by the respective Minister willoversee the process. They will shortlist the names to be sent togovernment for approval.
The cabinet gave approval to grant National Information Technology Board anindependent status, separating it from Ministry of Information Technologyin order to improve its functioning.
It has also been decided to shift Accountability Court No. 2 Rawalpindi toIslamabad and it will be now called Accountability Court Mo. 3.
He said the Task force for Evacuee Trust complex has been approved whilethe decision about its chairman deferred for a week.
