The federal cabinet on Tuesday granted "conditional" approval to remove ailing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's name from the Exit Control List (ECL). Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan addressing a news conference after the cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, said that 85-90 percent participants of the cabinet meeting were in favour of allowing Nawaz Sharif to go abroad for medical treatment if he meets certain conditions.
She said Law Minister Dr Farogh Naseem apprised the meeting of developments taking place in this regard. The cabinet discussed the issue at length. She said there was a consensus in the meeting that treatment of Nawaz Sharif is a humanitarian issue and there should be no politics on it. The government will not create any hurdle in this regard.
However, the meeting was of the view that the former Prime Minister should be bound with certain guarantees, sureties and indemnity bonds for his return after completion of the treatment. She said if the conditions are met, it would be one-time favor and the visit should be time-bound.
The cabinet has given its sub-committee the mandate to decide about the process for removing Sharif's name from the no-fly list. The final decision on the matter will be taken after the sub-committee formulates a position on the issue.
A few cabinet members opposed striking Sharif's name off the ECL, albeit some of them said unconditional relief should not be given.
However, the Prime Minister was of the opinion that Nawaz Sharif should go abroad for treatment, she said.
According to a brief distributed in the press briefing, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh apprised the cabinet that the government has successfully achieved the targets in the first quarter of the financial year 2019-20. He said that during the first four months of the current financial year, current account deficit is 36 percent less as compared with the same period of the last year, adding the export sector has seen a 4 percent growth whereas there has been a decline of 30 percent in imports during the first four months.
The cabinet has been briefed that trade deficit has been declined by $8 billion, while fiscal deficit has been declined by 9 percent during the aforementioned period.
He said the government is focusing on increasing tax revenue and decreasing expenditures. About the expenditures, he said budget deficit remained Rs 286 billion during the first four months of this year against Rs 543 billion during the same period of last year.
The advisor further told the cabinet that FBR collected Rs 1,280 billion during the said period which is a record and the collection is 16 percent higher than the collection made in the last year. He further told the cabinet that there has been an increase of 21 percent in domestic tax collection. The advisor said that efforts are being made to decrease the expenditures and in this regard no supplementary grant will be given to any ministry.
About the exchange rate, the advisor accused the previous government of causing a loss of $ 20-25 billion to maintain rupee against dollar at a specific level and this also contributed to decline in exports. The present government has decided to pursue market-based exchange rate policy whose positive impact is visible on exports.
He said the rupee has not only achieved stability but has also a positive impact on the stock market. There was a positive growth in investment in the stock market after a period of 3 to 4 years and there was an additional investment of $600 million in stock market. More than one thousand companies had got themselves registered with Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan with the number of companies increasing from 4,600 to 5,700. This, he added, was an increase of 24 percent in registration of new companies.
He said there was a 4.5 percent increase in cement production as one million ton additional cement has been produced. The number of tax filers has increased from 1.9 million to 2.7 million and additional increase in the number of filers is also expected.
The advisor also told the cabinet that issues with traders have been settled amicably which would help the government document the economy by bringing the undocumented sectors into the tax net.
The federal government was also informed that the fine of US $1.2 billion imposed on Pakistan on account of Karkey has been waived off with the efforts of the Prime minister. He said that International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) first review commission has been completed successfully and the Fund acknowledged that all the performance criteria were met with comfortable margins.
The IMF also expressed satisfaction on primary deficit, claimed the minister, adding that the government was given target of negative Rs 102 billion with regard to expenditure but the government has reduced expenditure by Rs 286 billion against the income.
The cabinet was told that the IMF in a statement has stated that the government policies have started yielding results to restore economic stability, narrow external and fiscal deficit while inflation is expected to decline and growth target will be surpassed.
The minister told the cabinet that the IMF has also expressed satisfaction with regard to circular debt which has been reduced from Rs 38 billion monthly to Rs 10-12 billion per month and the government is set to promote exports as it has decided to give Rs 200 billion to promote exports.
The cabinet was also informed that the government wants to produce more electricity through renewable resources.
During the press conference, Dr Firdous said that Dr Hafeez Shaikh apprised the cabinet of improvement in economic indicators, encouraging economic results of the government's policies, and the problems faced by common people and strategies to resolve them. The advisor on finance further informed the meeting that due to turnaround of economy, the ultimate beneficiaries will be people of Pakistan.
She said the Prime Minister appreciated the improvement in economic indicators and performance of the economic team and also directed to disseminate information to public regarding these positive impacts.
She said Pakistan's economic policies have restored the confidence of international financial institutions including the IMF.
She said the Prime Minister, once again, directed all provincial governments to expedite measures to control inflation and curb prices of essential items. The performance of the provincial governments will be measured through reduction in prices by their actions, she added.
Dr Awan said the Prime Minister directed to ensure that essential items are available at the outlets of Utility Stores Corporation (USC), for which Rs 6 billion has already been released. She said the technology will be utilized to overcome corruption and performance issues in the USC.
The Prime Minister also gave directions to the cabinet that all cabinet members must take responsibility of the performance of their respective ministries. If there is any issue, it will be the responsibility of the respective minister. The ministers will take their decisions on fast track basis, she said.
She said the cabinet was apprised of key projects under CPEC including ML-1, Gwadar international airport, and other infrastructure projects that were discussed in the recent JCC meeting with Chinese counterparts.
Dr Awan said the cabinet was informed that 1,594 Pakistani prisoners from Saudi Arabia and 345 from Malaysia have returned to the country after serving their sentences due to special efforts made by the Prime Minister.
The cabinet expressed displeasure over a news report carried by a section of media regarding inquiry commission on debt accumulated by previous governments. The said report was based on wrong statistics and fabricated facts.
Replying to a question, the special assistant said the Prime Minister expressed displeasure over shortage and price hike of certain perishable food items.
She said the Prime Minister directed to devise a mechanism to have advance knowledge of perishable food items that could face shortage.
Awan expressed the hope that there will not be shortage of food items in future.
Replying to a question, she said that increasing frustration of participants of 'Azadi March' indicates that they have entered into a closed alley.
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