The Council of Common Interests (CCI) has decided to increase the verification of census results from one percent of the total data to five percent in an effort to alleviate the concerns of political parties. A meeting of the CCI presided over by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was given a presentation by the Statistics Division on the issue of third-party validation of the census results. After the presentation, the meeting decided to increase the random sampling of the census data to 5 percent from one percent, which had been decided by the previous meeting of the CCI. The meeting also reiterated that every effort would be made to complete the process within the shortest possible time.
Sources said that gas tariff for consumers will also increase subsequent to the CCI decision that all expenditure for provision of gas to localities/villages falling within 5 kilometers radius of gas production fields will be borne by the distribution companies. The meeting decided that in case of Balochistan, provision of gas to the nearest tehsil headquarter or district headquarter would be ensured.
On the issue of Higher Education Commission and other similar bodies in post-18th Constitutional Amendment scenario, the CCI decided to constitute National Task Force on Education Standards in the country. The task force would look into the issues of curriculum, medium of instruction, etc, and make recommendations for bringing uniformity and improving quality of education across the country.
The CCI also decided that the concerns of the provinces on import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) would be referred to the relevant ministry and the LNG import issue would be discussed in the next CCI meeting along with views of the concerned ministry.
The issue of net hydel profit (NHP) was also discussed during the meeting and the meeting was informed that the issue of the two provinces has been amicably resolved during the meeting with the Prime Minister. An official said that KP province has been insisting provision of NHP to the province as per the Qazi Formula while AJK government wants an increase in the NHP.
The meeting also agreed to real-time monitoring of the electricity production, allocation to each DISCO and duration of load-shedding by the provinces. A similar mechanism would also be made available for the gas sector. On the issue of establishment of Fiscal Coordination Committee, the meeting decided that the existing committee constituted under NFC would be further mandated to ensure better coordination among senior officials of finance divisions of the provinces and the federal government in matters relating to fiscal consolidation.
The CCI decided to constitute a sub-committee comprising Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistan and Human Resource Development, SAPM on Law, SAPM on Revenue, provincial labor ministers, finance secretary, provincial labor secretaries and secretary Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and it was directed to resolve issues relating to EOBI and Workers Welfare Fund (WWF) in the post-18th Constitutional Amendment scenario. The meeting approved a proposal by the Ministry for Energy for an amendment in the Petroleum Exploration and Production Policy, 2012.
The CCI also agreed to the request of government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for granting a one-time relaxation to the award of one new exploration block to each Provincial Holding Companies (PHCs) without a competitive bidding. The CCI constituted a committee with chairman Planning Commission, deputy chairman Planning, secretaries Planning, Water and Energy Divisions and provincial representatives for detailed scrutiny and analysis of the proposed National Water Policy.
Ministry of Water and Power in the summary stated that with increasing population, Pakistan is fast heading towards a situation of serious water shortage and per capita surface water availability which was 2560 cubic feet meter per years in 1951 has reduced to 940 cubic meter per year in 2015. Some of the key issues facing the water sector are absence of holistic approach, sub-optimal use and low productivity of water, and inadequate storage capacity, etc.
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