- 100-day plan: Federal cabinet approves constitution of committees and task forces
- Discusses creating 10mln job opportunities & building 5mln houses
- National Bank President removed: Fawad Chaudhry
- Says PM’s travel via helicopter costs around Rs 50-55 per km
ISLAMABAD, August 28: The federal cabinet on Tuesday approved reforms in criminal procedure code and ordered a taskforce to oversee reforms in civil law and National Accountability Bureau, sources reported.
The session was chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan at PM House to discuss a nine-point agenda. The Cabinet discussed the formation of task forces to tackle the matter of creating 10 million jobs and building 5 million houses as promised by the incumbent government.
Later, briefing the media persons about the decisions taken during the cabinet meeting, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the task forces will complete their working on the matters and present their plan in 90-days’ time.
“The prime minister will also review the performance of these task forces after every 15 days,” Chaudhry said.
Answering a question about how more jobs will be created, Chaudhry said the government will not employ unnecessary help in its own departments, “that is not how you create jobs, our task is to create opportunities where eligible people can apply, that is what the task force is tasked to do.”
“Government reforms are an important matter and under which civil service reforms hold a high degree of importance. Our adviser for austerity has been tasked with presenting federal government reforms within 90 days,” the minister said.
“He will also be overseeing reforms in the planning department. A large amount of money goes into Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for which he [the austerity adviser] will be bringing in reforms,” he added.
The federal cabinet has decided to remove Saeed Ahmed as the president of National Bank of Pakistan, information minister Fawad Chaudhry said.
Saeed Ahmed was involved in money laundering of billions of rupees and is facing cases in court, Fawad said.
Dr Suleman, who is working as the NACTA coordinator, is to be appointed the new Director General of IB, the cabinet decided.
The Information Minister said that the NAB would also be reformed to make it more effective.
“FATA merger was part of our 100-day program and the prime minister has issued instructions to speed up the merger,” Chaudhry said.
A committee comprising Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Khushro Bakhtiar has been constituted to look after the matters relating to the formation of South Punjab province.
In an attempt to create more jobs, the government has formed a task force to build 5 million new houses, Chaudhry added.
Malik Amin Aslam, the advisor to the prime minister on environment affairs, said that the government will plant 10 billion trees to tackle the effects of climate change.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry says Prime Minister Imran Khan’s travel via his helicopter costs between Rs 50 and Rs 55 per kilometer.
The minister said PM Khan’s commute via helicopter doesn’t cost much and it’s around Rs 55 per km. He said helicopter isn’t much expensive if somebody owns it personally and not hired on rent.
He said it’s preferable to travel via helicopter instead of cavalcade on road that causes hardship to people. He underlined that four helicopters are already at the PM House from previous regimes, which is prerogative of any prime minister.
The information minister said the government has slashed Rs 550 millions under austerity measure. He added that 530 people were working at the PM House whose number has now come down to below 10. Agencies/DNA
