ISLAMABAD: The Federal Cabinet Tuesday banned the export of all edible items consumed by the common man in view of the current situation in the country.
The decision will be reviewed after two weeks.
Chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, the cabinet approved a request of the Inquiry Commission, investigating increase in sugar prices, to extend time for submission of report by three weeks.
Some of the members attended in person, some through the video link, while a few could not participate due to the video link problems. SAPM on Health Dr. Zafar Mirza briefed the cabinet about the latest situation of COVID-19.
The cabinet approved Assistance Package for COVID-19 related healthcare workers. Any healthcare worker, who dies on duty related to COVID-19 shall be entitled to the same package as is applicable to the government servants in cases of security related deaths contained in the Shuhada Package. The package will be applicable in the domain of ICT, AJK and Gilgit Baltistan.
The cabinet ratified decisions of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) taken in its meetings held on April 22 and 27.
Approving Rs75 billion relief package, in the first phase for the labour class, the prime minister directed SAPM for Social Welfare Dr. Sania Nishtar and Minister for Industries Hammad Azhar to devise a comprehensive mechanism for providing relief to the labour. Adviser on Finance Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh briefed the cabinet about the progress made in regulating affairs of the Competition Commission of Pakistan. The cabinet approved appointment of Mrs. Shaista Bano Gillani as acting Chairperson of the Competition Commission of Pakistan.
The cabinet ratified the recommendations of the CCLC (Cabinet Committee on Legislative Cases) made in its meeting held on 27nd April.
The cabinet approved, in principle, ‘Netting of Financial Contracts Bill, 2020’ to remove any uncertainty in enforcing the netting rights in case of a termination event, bankruptcy, insolvency proceedings, limits the power of the liquidators to prevent any cherry picking of qualified financial contracts/transactions, which fall within the ambit of netting provisions and allows financial collateral arrangements under such netting rights.
Once the law is enforced, the qualified financial contracts will always be settled on the basis of “netting” in the presence of netting arrangement.
The cabinet approved a proposal to notify that all companies supplying electricity or gas through distribution or transmission line be members of a Credit Bureau and to furnish information in accordance with the Credit Bureau Act, 2015
The forum while approving allocation for grant-in-aid from the federal government for journalists and journalistic bodies, especially press clubs, tasked Minister for Information Syed Shibli Faraz and SAPM for Information Asim Saleem Bajwa with finalizing procedure/SOPs for disbursement of grant to the deserving journalists and journalistic bodies.
The Cabinet approved restructuring of Board of Directors of Pak-Arab Refinery Limited (Parco). Aftab Hussain (Sindh), Abdul Hadi Shah (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Ms. Bushra Naz Malik (Punjab/Women representative) were approved as the board members.
The cabinet approved nomination of director against the casual vacancies of the Board of Directors of SNGPL, Pakistan Petroleum Limited, Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation and Ogra.
The cabinet approved modalities for export of chloroquine by importers in possession of raw material.
The prime minister said the government had planned to offer government-owned land located in major cities to the overseas Pakistanis in order to generate financial resources.
He also directed all the ministries to expedite setting up of think-tank, comprising area experts and professionals, in the ministries in order to bring about qualitative improvement in their overall performance and output.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to review all the appointments made after August 18, 2016 without the federal cabinet approval.
According to details, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s secretary Tuesday issued a notification to all the ministries and divisions seeking complete data of all non-approved appointments till April 30.
The authorities concerned have been directed to submit details on the hiring made after August 18, 2016 without the federal cabinet s approval.
As per the Supreme Court (SC) directives, the decision of federal cabinet on the recruitment process is being taken as the decision of federal government.
Moreover, the cabinet secretary has been instructed to brief the participants on this matter in the May 5 meeting.
