Shahbaz Sharif should resign as PAC chairman on moral grounds: Info Minister

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Cabinet on Thursday decided to constitute a committee headed by Defense Minister Pervez Khattak to develop a proper system for stabilization of prices of essential commodities and checking profiteering.

Briefing the media persons about the decisions taken by the Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Minister for Information Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said that a mobile phone application would also be developed for providing an opportunity to the consumers to know the prices of essential commodities in the country.

He said the Statistics Division gave a presentation on the prices of commodities in the country.

The cabinet was informed that during the first six months of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government the prices of daily use commodities had registered a 6.5 percent increase, whereas in the first six months of the PTI government only 1.4 percent increase was witnessed.

He said that during the past few months, prices of vegetables and pulses had fallen, while the prices of petroleum products had also shown a downward trend.

Fawad said at the outset, the cabinet expressed its serious reservations regarding the role of Shahbaz Sharif as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and using it as a shield against corruption cases, which was unacceptable.

Moreover, he said, efforts were being made to induct Saad Rafique, another leader arrested on corruption charges in the PAC.

Chaudhry Fawad demanded that Shahbaz Sharif should tender resignation as the PAC chairman on moral grounds.

Fawad said that the cabinet had issued directives for external audit of the gas bills for the last two months.

During the PML-N tenure costly gas import agreements were signed and high gas bills were its outcome, he added.

He said that in 2013 when the PML-N took over, gas companies had no outstanding dues but now they had suffered Rs 157 billion losses due to faulty policies of the previous government.

He said that the housing minister was issued directives to take action against illegal occupants of the government residences.

In that regard, he mentioned the PPP leader Raza Rabbani and the PML-N Senator Mushahidullah Khan were using government residences illegally.

Fawad said that during the meeting, the Prime Minister said that overseas Pakistanis were asset of the nation who remit billions of rupees to their homeland.

The dual nationals also had expertise in various fields which could be beneficial for the country.

However, he said the Law Ministry would prepare a list of areas where they would not be appointed.

Fawad said that the cabinet constituted a committee headed by Governor Punjab Chaudhry Sarwar to monitor development works at Kartarpur and Nankana Sahib, where overseas Sikh community wanted to build hotels and other projects.

The cabinet directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA), to present a report on buildings having no facilities for the disabled persons and take action against the owners, he said adding that Human Rights Ministry was bringing a bill to provide protection and rights to the senior citizens.

About Sehat Card, he said that in the next phase artists and media persons would be covered under the health insurance scheme.

The cabinet reviewed the progress of ongoing process of FATA in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and called for practical steps to expedite it.

He said that Portugal and France had already changed travel advisory for Pakistan and it was hoped that in future other European countries would also ease travel advisories.

To a question, he said that the PTI believed that NAB's power should be increased and the institution should be more independent and transparent, so that its working could become more effective.

He ruled out any concession to corrupt politicians facing accountability cases and said that all the national institutions were on the same page on that issue.

He said the National Assembly Speaker was custodian of the House, and he had to run the assembly.

He was taking the opposition along in running the House, which was unprecedented in the country's history, Fawad said.

The minister said that the government had launched Poverty Alleviation Programme headed by Dr Sania Nishtar and surveys were being conducted to upgrade data of the poor people.

A Ramzan Package would also be given to the deserving people, he added.