The Federal Cabinet is said to have blocked Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani''s proposal to ratify Economic Co-ordination Committee''s (ECC) decisions. The ECC is now being headed by Prime Minister''s Advisor on Finance Shaukat Tarin after the Prime Minister decided not to preside over the committee''s meetings.
After detailed discussion, the Federal Cabinet constituted a ministerial committee to examine if the decisions taken by the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet. According to official documents, the Cabinet was briefed on May 6 about the ECC, which in its meeting held on March 19 considered 13 items.
Since ratification by the Cabinet is a pre-requisite on certain cases disposed of by Cabinet committees, the decisions of the ECC committees were submitted for ratification by the cabinet. According to the sources, the Prime Minister intimated the Cabinet that, in view of the fact that requirement of Rules of Business 1973 were being ignored, it had been decided, in principle, to seek ratification of Cabinet in these cases.
It was opined that ratification by the Cabinet was an additional tier for discussion and would imply delay in implementation of decisions already taken by the Cabinet committees. In response, it was explained that the matter placed before the Cabinet was for ratification and not for fresh discussion. The idea was to save time of the Cabinet and to hold threadbare discussion at the fora of the Cabinet committees.
Interpretation of Rules of Business 1973 was debated and it was argued that if the Cabinet allowed its committee to dispose of a matter, ratification was not required. The debate was wound up with the direction to the Cabinet Secretary to discuss options with the Ministers for Privatisation and Parliamentary Affairs.
Earlier, an official of the Cabinet Division told this newspaper that ECC was just a recommendatory forum not the authority to take decisions that was why its decision were being placed before the Cabinet. The ECC also directed all the ministries and divisions to submit their summaries to the Cabinet Division a week before the ECC meeting so that all the stakeholders should send their comments.
The ministries habitually submit their summaries during the ECC meeting without giving sufficient time to other ministries for comments. However, in case of any emergency, the ministries have been asked to seek the permission of the Prime Minister.