ISLAMABAD: The federal Cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Wednesday gave its approval to amendments in the Stock Exchanges (corporatisation, Demutua-lization and Integration) Act, 2012. Addressing a press conference here after the Cabinet meeting, Minister for Information Qamar Zaman Kaira did not rule out the high incidence of corruption in the country. According to him, it is a phenomenon which prevailed in all the developing countries.
He however, said the Cabinet had taken a serious notice of reports of corruption and constituted a committee to look into the issue and report back within fifteen days. He said the Minister for Law and Justice would be heading the committee while Minister for Finance, Defence and Information would be its members. The Transparency International (TI) report regarding rapidly rising graph of corruption in the country was discussed at length, he said but did not agree to Rs 7 billion as amount of daily corruption. He also said there was a wrong impression that the federal government was responsible for corruption as provinces had been utilising more resources as compared to centre following the passage of the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
The Cabinet reviewed the status of implementation of cabinet decisions pertaining to Foreign Affairs and Human Resource Development Divisions and was informed that 85% of the decisions had been implemented. The Finance Division made a presentation to the Cabinet on Consumer Price Index (CPI). According to it, the inflation has in fact decreased considerably as compared to 2008. The Finance Minister stated that expenditure of federal government had increased 6 percent against 12 percent inflation. The minister said that expenditures of all the provincial assemblies had recorded an increase of 21 percent, which was significantly higher as compared to the federal government's. The Minister said the provinces had not been able to increase tax collection and received Rs 5000 billion from the divisible pool during the last three years.
The Cabinet considered and accorded approval to the Cost and Management Accountants (Amendment) Bill 2012. The meeting also accorded its approval to initiate negotiations on draft agreement of mutual co-operation in the field of justice administration between Law Ministry of Pakistan and Ministry of Justice, Tunisia. The Cabinet also accorded approval, in principle, towards starting negotiations and signing executive programme of the Agreement of Islamic Co-operation (2012-14) between Pakistan and Morocco. Approval was also granted for the signing of an agreement on scientific and technological co-operation between Pakistan and the United Mexican States.
The Cabinet considered and approved ratification of protocol on co-operation in the field of archives between Turkey and Pakistan. The Cabinet also prayed for the departed souls of PPP's Senator Malik Salahuddin Dogar and Senator Wali Muhammad Badini and condemned recent terrorist attacks on a police station in Bannu and an attack on Awami National Party's rally.
The Prime Minister said that these cowardly attacks would not weaken governments resolve and determination to eliminate this menace. The Prime Minister in his opening remarks stated that as per the vision of Shaheed Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto, the government was striving to make foolproof arrangements for holding free and fair elections and in this regard it would further strengthen the Election Commission as and when required. He also termed the recent charges against Pakistan by Afghanistan for an attack that wounded the Afghan spy chief baseless.
Ashraf said the country was heading towards elections. He said that free, fair and credible elections were essential for democracy, security and development of the country. The world would see that free, fair and transparent elections will result in PPP's and its allied parties' success with an overwhelming majority.
Replying to a question to information minister said that depreciation of Pak rupee against dollar was relatively less as compared to other regional countries' currencies. He said regulatory bodies could not be abolished but improvement could be brought about by fixing the problem. He said the CNG issue was being dealt with by the Ogra, which was an autonomous body.