The Federal Cabinet directed the Interior Ministry to consider allowing every household an arms licence in view of the current law and order situation. Official documents available with Business Recorder revealed that these directives were issued by the Cabinet, in its special meeting on June 1, 2012 presided over by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani.
The Cabinet meeting was convened to discuss and approve Federal Budget, 2012-13, unveiled by Finance Minister, Dr Hafeez Shaikh in the National Assembly. Federal Cabinet rejected a survey conducted by the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), according to which number of poor households have dropped drastically. Cabinet members maintained that statistics presented by the BISP before the Cabinet is far from ground realities. "The drop in number of households (17,000 to 11,000) by virtue of the poverty assessment survey conducted by BISP should be reassessed," documents added.
The Cabinet also decided that subsidies should be granted to solar tube well technology. Finance Ministry was directed to introduce monetization scheme, currently enforced for BS-20 to 22 officers by virtue of its saving value, for BS-17 to 19 as well. Keeping in view financial constraints the Cabinet directed that the number and size of official delegations for visits abroad should be curtailed to minimal/bare essential keeping austerity in view. The budget allocation for Higher Education and Science & Technology in terms of GDP must be at least 1 percent, the documents further noted.