The Cabinet expressed its deep sense of gratitude to Almighty Allah and also extended its appreciation to the political leadership of the country, the provincial governments and the law enforcement agencies for making foolproof security arrangements for the maintenance of the law and order during the Ashura.
The Cabinet was also given briefing by the Director General, Military Operation on the Mohmand Agency’s gruesome incident in which scores of military personnel embraced shahadat.
The Cabinet expressed its full support for the government to press upon the NATO and the US to frame new parameters of engagements based on mutual respect and the national interests ensuring sovereignty of Pakistan.
It said Pakistan surely prefers the diplomacy over the brinkmanship as a responsible country of the international community,but its sovereignty was above all considerations.
The Secretary Establishment informed the Cabinet that 7500 employees had been regularized and the teachers of National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) were also being paid salaries from the national exchequer as per the Supreme Court orders.
As a result of the 18th Amendment, 17 Ministries/Divisions were devolved,but their more than 60,000 employees were adjusted in provincial and federal government organizations satisfactorily, the Secretary added.
Secretary Finance briefed the Cabinet on behalf of the Energy Committee headed by the Minister for Finance.
The Cabinet was informed that the Ministry of Water and Power had launched a campaign in the country to recover the arrears of electricity charges from the defaulters no matter these were private or belong to the government sector.
The Cabinet was informed that 200,000 connections were disconnected due to non-payment and 42000 connections were restored after payments were made by the defaulters.
As per directive of the Prime Minister, the Secretary Finance also briefed the Cabinet about the restructuring of the power sector which was absolutely important to make the sector viable as balance between the revenue generation and cost of generation cannot be disregarded for too long.
The Secretary informed that the introduction of corporate culture in power generation, its distribution and collection of revenue was the underpinning of the holistic approach to make the power sector competitive as well as sustainable.
The Cabinet was informed that the fertilizer factories were provided Sui Gas so that the urea was made available to the farmers in December which was the highest consumption period of Urea as far as the Rabi crop was concerned.
The Secretary informed that the supply of gas would be ensured on equitable basis to all sectors of the economy.
The Cabinet directed that there should be no unscheduled loadshedding and the authorities concerned must ensure that the people and the industrial sector were subjected to minimum possible disruption of gas and electricity.
The Prime Minister decided to hold meeting of the Cabinet every week and to take the briefings of PIA, Pakistan Steel Mills and the Pakistan Railways for taking decisions with a view to make them viable by figuring out rescue packages for these public sector enterprises.
The Cabinet approved the ratification of Preferential Trade Agreement among the D-8 Muslim countries consisting Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Nigeria and Pakistan. The agreement envisages tariff reduction among the countries.
The Cabinet approved the starting of negotiations on mutual recognition agreement, agreement on reduction of grievances with India and preferential trading agreement under SAFTA.
The Cabinet approved the signing of agreement between Pakistan and Swaziland on military co-operation.
The Cabinet also ratified an agreement on economic, scientific and technological co-operation between Pakistan and Romania.
The Cabinet approved the signing of framework agreement for grant aid between Pakistan and Republic of Korea.
The Cabinet approved in principle for negotiation and signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on co-operation between the Ministry of Railway of Republic of Korea and Pakistan Railways in the field of railway development.
The Cabinet accorded its approval of MoU between Korea Water Resources Corporation and Water and Power Development Authority, WAPDA, Pakistan.
The Cabinet approved the signing of an MoU between KEPCO, Korea and Water and Power Authority, Pakistan. (APP)
