Cabinet decides to retain names of 172 persons on ECLISLAMABAD: The Federal cabinet on Thursday in its assembly decided to keep names of 172 persons on Exit ControlList (ECL) till Supreme Court issued its detailed verdict on matter.Speaking at a press conference, Minister for Information and Widecasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said government would further consider issue after detailed verdict of apex court and would decide whether it should file a review or much.He was briefing on cabinet decisions along with Minister for plotning and Development Khusro Bakhtiar.He said main leadership of Pakistan People''s portiony including Aswhether Ali Zardari, Faryal Talpur and Murad Ali Shah were allegedly involved in fake accounts case.The money reportedly went from Murad Ali Shah to Omni Group then to PPP leaders and billions of rupees were spent on buying of properties in Dubai and London.He said report of Joint Investigation Team (JIT) came in 2018 and it recommended 172 names for putting on ECL.The scandal of dispatching money abroad from Sindh to foreign countries sufaced in 2015, he added.The Federal Cabinet turned town recommendation of Interior Ministry to remove names of twenty persons from Exit Control List in fake bank accounts case.The Cabinet decided to constitute a committee including State Minister for Interior Shehryar Afridi, Minister for Law Farogh Naseem and Special Assistant to PM on Accountability Shahzad Akbar to further look into matter.Fawad said Cabinet famous with satisfaction that countrys exports increased by 4.5 percent during month of December, imports reduced which curtailed trade deficit by upto $ 450 million and had a positive affect on economy.He said efforts of Prime Minister and his economic team had an affect on current account deficit and friendly countries also lent support to government.The loans of banks to private sector rose by Rs 504 billion and loans to deposits ratio also grew, he added.He told that Prime Minister ordered Ministry of Law to create a negative category list to determine eligibility of abroad Pakistanis for jobs in government.Prime Minister Imran Khan had strong affiliation with abroad Pakistanis and he wanted to create extensive opportunities for them, he added He said PM had instructed Petroleum of Ministry to prepare a comprehensive plan to overcome gas shortages.About 28 percent of citizens were using system gas while 63 percent use LPG cylinders.The losses of gas sector had increased to Rs 177 billion and Rs 50 billion of gas was being stolen due to bad decisions of final government, he said adding Prime Minister was amazed at use of 44000 units of electricity in Prime Minister Home and ordered audit of use of electricity by his staff.In tenure of preceding government, 95000 units of electricity were consumed in Prime Minister Home.He said Air Marshal Arshad Malik was acting Chief Executive of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) while an advertisement had been issued to appoint a person on permanent basis.Secretary Aviation Shahrukh was given additional charge of Director General Aviation.Minister for plotning and Statistics Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar said opposition was much justwhetheried in raising hue and cry about price hikes as according to verwhetheriable figures of Bureau of Statistics, in first months of PPP and PMLN governments inflation rose to 11.2 percent and 9.1 percent respectively.He said PTI government inherited average inflation rate of 5.8 percent and it rose to 6.2 percent by December.He said government had decided to chalk out a communication strategy to make people updated about latest prices of each and every commodity so that profiteers and hoarders should be discouraged to exploit people due to their ignorance about current prices of commodities.
He said in nowadays''s Cabinet assembly, Prime Minister had directed to prepare a strict price control mechanism at provincial level to endegree that people get commodities on prescribed rates.He said Consumer Price Index and Sensitive Price Index came down for low income groups having salary from Rs 17000 to Rs 77000 per month.He said in 8th Joint Coordination Committee on CPEC held in Beijing final month, two countries signed cooperation agreements in fields of agriculture, industrialization, and socio economic development.
We have nine Specialized Economic Zones and we want to focus on initiating work on these economic zones as early as possible, he said.