Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday constituted the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) comprising 21 members.

In a notification, the Finance Division said that the 21-member EAC will be chaired by PM Sharif.

The composition of the EAC is as under:

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi,

Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhary,

Miftah Ismail,

Saleem Mandviwalla,

Marriyum Aurangzeb,

Dr Ayesha Ghous Pasha,

Mussadiq Malik,

Tariq Pasha,

Mian Muhammad Mansha,

Mohammad Ali Tabba,

Arif Habib,

Dr Asim Hussain,

Atif Bajwa,

Faisal Farid,

Muhammad Aurangzeb (President and CEO at HBL),

Waqar Ahmad Malik (MD/CEO Fauji Foundation),

Salman Ahmed,

Shahzad Salim,

Rahman Naseem,

Musadaq Zulqarnain, and

Dr ljaz Nabi

The EAC is being established to review and formulate economic policies in a more holistic manner, read the notification.

The EAC will advise on short-term macro-economic stabilisation as well as structural reforms for stable and sustained economic progress. The council will be convened on a weekly basis.

As per the Terms of Reference (ToR), the EAC would review the overall economic condition of the country and propose possible corrective measures considering the available resources of the country.

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It will analyse the effectiveness of subsidies, protection and other financial support by the government to the State-Owned Enterprises (SoEs) and other vital sectors of the economy in the context of overall cost and benefit analysis of such subsidies/protection.

The council would also review the existing market imperfections in the various important sectors of the economy in order to promote competition by correcting the market distortions.

It would advise the government ministries, organisations, bodies and various project implementing agencies in formulating evidence-based policies. Furthermore, the EAC would also help in finding the technical expertise and human resource that may be required to carry out the requisite financial and economic analysis/studies.