ISLAMABAD – Federal Cabinet has directed the Statistics Division to monitorthe prices of items of daily use regularly and brief the cabinet on weeklybasis.
Addressing media on cabinet decisions in Islamabad on Wedensday, Ministerfor Information and Broadcasting Chaudhary Fawad Hussain said the Divisionwill monitor and collect data on prices of items of daily use in seventysix markets and forty cities and will submit its report to federal cabineteach week.
The Minister said the cabinet took stock of the issue of list of 172 peoplein Exit Control List in light of the observations of Supreme Court ofPakistan and decided to send the matter to ECL Review Committee, workingunder Ministry of Interior. He said the decision of adding or excludingnames in the list will be taken according to the recommendations of theCommittee which will brief the cabinet next week.
Chaudhary Fawad Hussain said the cabinet also decided to expedite theprivatization of five units including Haveli Bahadur Shah, Lakhra CoalMine, Services Hotel Lahore, divestment of government shares in petroleumcompanies and K-Electric.
The cabinet also established a committee of Land Bank headed by DefenseMinister Pervez Khattak. It will identify 150 prime properties for use invarious public sector projects and submit its report to the cabinet in itsnext meeting. The Minister said 9442 kanals of unused land has beenidentified at the federal level, 56000 kanal in Punjab and 5258 kanal inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa so far.
The Minister said cabinet also accorded approval to three additional postsof judges in Islamabad High Court. It will increase the number of judgesfrom 6 to nine, in addition to Chief Justice.
He said a Poverty Alleviation Coordination Council has been establishedthat will work under Dr. Sania Nishtar. It has been tasked to coordinatethe activities of various institutions at federal and provincial level inpoverty alleviation.
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Chaudhary Fawad Hussain said additional customs duty for offshoreexploration companies in order to create a more favorable environment forforeign investment into the country. He said the PTI government aims tolevy tax on income, and not on the companies doing investment.
On Karachi, the Information Minister said it is economic hub of the countryand people of the city have entrusted the policies of the incumbentgovernment by voting it. He said a high powered Committee has beenconstituted for the development of the metropolis.
Chaudhary Fawad Hussain said the cabinet approved a sum of 2.8 billionrupees for the construction of FC Headquarters in South and North zones ofBalochistan.
The Minister said the export duty on jaggery has been brought down to 2.5percent to enhance local production and export of the commodity. He said anamount of 123 million euro as loan has been approved for Bus RapidTransport in Peshawar.
