ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has constituted a 21-member Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to review and formulate economic policies in a more holistic manner.
According to a notification issued by the Finance Division, the EAC members included; (1) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi;(2) Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhary;(3) Miftah Ismail;(4)Saleem Mandviwalla;(5)Marriyum Aurangzeb;(6) Dr Ayesha Ghous Pasha;(7)Musaddiq Malik;(8) Tariq Pasha;(9) Mian Muhammad Mansha; (10) Mohammad Ali Tabba;(Il) Arif Habib;(12)Dr Asim Hussain;(13) Atif Bajwa; (14) Faisal Farid;(15) Aurangzeb, HBL;(16) Waqar Ahmad Malik, MD/CEO Fauji Foundation;(17) Salman Ahmed;(18) Shahzad Salim;(19)Rahman Naseem;(20) Musadaq Zulqarnain; (2I) Dr Ijaz Nabi.
To be chaired by the prime minister, TORs of the EAC include; (i) it will advise on short term macro-economic stabilization, as well as, structural reforms for stable and sustained economic progress; (ii) the meeting will be convened on weekly basis on the issues of national economic importance.
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The scope of the work and structure of the EAC will include: 1) it will review the overall economic condition of the country and propose possible corrective measures considering available resources of the country; (2) 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 context of overall cost and benefit analysis of such subsidies/ protection;(3) review the existing market imperfections in the various important sectors of the economy in order to promote competition by correcting the market distortions;(4) to advise the government ministries, organizations, bodies and various project implementing agencies in formulating evidence-based policies;(5) to help in finding the technical expertise and human resource that may be required to carry out the requisite financial and economic analysis/ studies.
The EAC will initially meet once a week (virtually/ in-person) and specific sub-committees will be formed for focused work with the timelines and defined scope and it may co-opt any other member as per requirement.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022