ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) has unanimously agreed to launch a development project namely, “tackling malnutrition induced stunting in Pakistan” with a total cost of approximately Rs350 billion, however, consensus could not be developed on energy-related issues.
The CCI meeting presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan and attended by the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan also decided duration of the project as well as cost sharing formula but decided to convene next meeting of the CCI in the first month of the next year to finalise issues related to costs of electricity, gas and fuel; and to resolve water-related issues in view of the importance of developing a consensus on energy issues of the country, with the prime minister emphasizing that energy issues carry a national impact and it was necessary that a consensus was developed among the provinces, where a win-win result was achieved for the benefit of the people of Pakistan.
The meeting agreed that the duration of the project launched to deal with the problem of stunting growth would be for a period of five years (2020-2025) and a cost would be shared equally by the federal and provincial governments.
50 percent cost – Rs175 billion – will be borne by the federal government and rest of the 50 percent by the provincial governments, the meeting agreed after it was informed that the project would target 15 million women of reproductive age, and 3.9 million children under the age of two years through nutrition interventions.
The meeting decided to launch the project to deal with critical issue of malnutrition and stunted growth among children.
The CCI also decided that the federal government will provide for nutrition supplementary commodities, capacity building of new and existing healthcare workers, research and monitoring while provinces will contribute towards implementation through involvement of existing LHWs, Community Health Workers, target population identification, programme management, institutional arrangement, evaluation, and data sharing.
The CCI considered Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa governments request for a one-time permission to swap/substitute arrangement of one exploration block with another prospective block within the province.
The CCI accorded one-time approval for the swap with the condition that commitments accruing out of previous award of block should be completed, and the Petroleum Division should incorporate a time limit for such swap, so that future requests are catered for.
The CCI also reviewed implementation status of previous decisions.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020