Shaukat Tareen to be made chairman NEC

ISLAMABAD: The former federal finance minister Shaukat Khan Tareen is likely to be appointed Chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC) to be constituted later this month.

The council will be comprise economic experts hailing from the four provinces. Well-placed sources told The News here Wednesday evening that the NEC would cater the equitable distribution of resources for the federating units and creation of wealth. Tareen who was replaced by former Finance Minister Dr. Hafeez Sheikh in previous PPP government of Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani in 2010, would be SAPM and avail the status of federal minister. He was approached by a government representative who is currently placed in an exalted office in Lahore for accepting the slot, the sources said. Tareen who runs his own bank and keeps shuttling between Islamabad and Karachi, would be based in Islamabad with a liaison office in Karachi. Meanwhile, the incumbent Finance Minister Hammad Azhar has initiated work to give final shape to next fiscal year’s budget which will be presented in last week of next month.