State-owned land in major cities to be offered for sale to overseas Pakistanis

State-owned land in major cities to be offered for sale to overseas Pakistanis

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said that the government has planned to offer sale of state-owned land in major cities to overseas Pakistanis.

While chairing the federal cabinet meeting, the prime minister said that the government has planned to offer government owned land located in major cities to the overseas Pakistanis in order to generate much needed financial resources.

The prime minister also directed all ministries to expedite setting up of think-tank comprising of area experts and professionals in the ministries in order to bring about qualitative improvement in the overall performance and output of the ministries.

The cabinet ratified decisions of the Economic Coordination Committee taken in its meetings held on 22-04-2020 and 27-04-2020.

The prime minister directed that in wake of current situation, export of all edible items which are consumed by common man, should be banned.

The decision will be reviewed after two weeks. While approving Rs. 75 billion relief package, in the first phase for labor, the Prime Minister directed SAPM for Social Welfare and Minister for Industries to devise a comprehensive mechanism for providing relief to the labour.

The Cabinet ratified the recommendations of the CCLC (Cabinet Committee on Legislative Cases) made in its meeting held on 27 April 2020.

Advisor Finance briefed the Cabinet about the progress made in regulating affairs of Competition Commission of Pakistan. The Cabinet approved appointment of Mrs. Shaista Bano Gillani as Acting Chairperson Competition Commission of Pakistan.

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 under the ambit of netting provisions ad 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 the 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 Cabinet while approving allocation for grant-in-aid from the Federal Government for the journalists and journalistic bodies especially press clubs, tasked Minister for Information and SAPM for Information to finalise procedure/SOPs for disbursement of the 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 members on the Board of PARCO.

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 Assistance Package for COVID-19 related healthcare workers.

Any healthcare worker, who dies while performing duties 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 Shudaa Package.

The Package will be applicable in the domain of ICT AJK and Gilgit Baltistan. The Cabinet approved the request of Inquiry Commission, probing into increase in sugar prices, to extend time for submission of the report by three weeks.

The Cabinet approved modalities for export of chloroquinine by importers in possession of raw material.