NUZHAT NAZAR

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Wednesday approved recommendations of Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) regarding lifting of moratorium on gas connections and also approved the Hajj Policy 2017.

The meeting presided over by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif rejected proposal regarding a hike in the cost of Hajj and directed the ministry to analyse and review Hajj expanses again and present a report in the next cabinet meeting.

While lifting ban on government jobs, opening gas connections to schemes launched in last four years and launching housing schemes for the homeless persons, PM Nawaz Sharif said that the government is committed to providing housing facilities to the poor. He further directed the Ministry of Religious Affairs to fully facilitate the pilgrims.

State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Maryam Aurangzeb in a media briefing after the cabinet meeting said that the cabinet also cleared routine unavoidable government business including approval of Hajj policy, amendment in the Drug Act and outsourcing of country’s three largest airports to private sector, besides endorsing decisions of the Economic Coordination Committee and giving permission for signing of over 20 MoUs of various nature.

The cabinet also approved amendments to the recruitment policy or mechanism to ‘ensure merit based recruitment’ in government jobs.

Aurengzeb said the recruitment policy has been improved under which those currently working on daily-wage, temporary and contract bases would be given age relaxation and a point based selection criteria.

The inductions/regularisation for grade 1-15 employees would be done directly by the relevant ministries and divisions while those in grade 16-17 would be hired through Federal Public Service Commission.

The minister said the meeting after a detailed briefing by Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal on housing situation constituted a committee led by Minister for Housing Akram Khan Durrani and comprising ministers for planning, railways and states and frontier regions (Safron), secretaries to the prime minister, finance, housing and planning ministers, and senior representatives of the State Bank of Pakistan and the National Bank of Pakistan to work out financial arrangements for the housing scheme within 10 days and resubmit a report to the cabinet for approval.

The state minister added that the scheme proposed undertaking housing projects for tens of thousands of homeless people, and the payment would be made through monthly installments on a long-term basis.

The cabinet also approved removal of moratorium on gas connections for industrial, commercial and residential consumers imposed in 2011 due to gas shortage, said state minister for information. She added that moratorium was removed as it was already recommended by the Cabinet Committee on Energy led by the Prime Minister earlier this week in view of an improvement in gas supplies due to imported regasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG).

She said the cabinet meeting also approved execution of gas development schemes approved by the government and gas supply to these schemes.

Maryum Aurangzeb said the cabinet also approved outsourcing of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad airports and their miscellaneous allied facilities to private sector. She added that this suggestion was presented by the Aviation Division.

She said some quarters are unnecessarily raising objections over the outsourcing of airports being done under an Aviation Policy approved in 2015. She said it is a universal practice that agencies like Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) act as regulators while airports and allied facilities are operated by the private companies for improved services.

She said the private partnership is also important for the fact whenever there is an accident, its investigations are carried out by the same agency that operates the airports and hence the quality of inquiries into accidents gets compromised.

She said the decision to outsource airports would improve management and service delivery and the CAA would continue to have a regulatory role.

Responding to a question, she said the issue of Indian spy Kulbhushan Yadav did not come up during the cabinet meeting as the Defence Minister Kh Asif had given a policy statement in this regard in the Parliament.

Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division who flanked the information minister during the press conference, said Pakistan would not bow down to any external threat in matters of national interest and give the same treatment to spies from any other country, if caught.

Aurangzeb said the prime minister also approved appointment of Dr Abdullah Malik as member oil of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority.