PM chairs meeting of Federal Cabinet

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 02 (APP): Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday chaired the meeting of Federal Cabinet. In the meeting, Federal Cabinet directed the Statistics Division to monitor the prices of items of daily use regularly and brief the cabinet on weekly basis. Statistics Division was ordered to monitor and collect data on prices of items of daily use in seventy six markets and forty cities and to submit its report to Federal Cabinet each week.

Cabinet also 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.

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.

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.

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.

Federal Cabinet also decided to establish Poverty Alleviation Coordination Council under Dr. Sania Nishtar, Chairperson BISP, and also to establish high powered Committee for the development of the Karachi. Cabinet also decided to remove additional customs duty for offshore exploration companies in order to create a more favorable environment for foreign investment into the country.

Federal Cabinet approved a sum of 2.8 billion rupees for the construction of FC Headquarters in South and North zones of Balochistan.

APP/Waseem/Shahzaib

VNS, Islamabad