Cabinet okays setting up of database for food items

Also gives nod to members of boards of governors of five hospitals

ISLAMABAD:

The federal cabinet on Tuesday approved the setting up of a centralised database for basic food items to ensure timely decisions about their demand and supply, assessment of prices, transportation and further strengthening of cooperation between the federal and provincial governments.

Speaking at a post-cabinet briefing, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the participants of the meeting had also given the nod to the appointment of members of the board of governors of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, the National Institute of Child Health Karachi, the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Karachi and the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.

Prime Minister Imran Khan presided over the meeting, which welcomed the inclusion of Shaukat Tarin as the finance minister in the cabinet.

The prime minister stressed the need for the early completion of the process for electronic voting and the right of vote to Pakistanis living abroad.

PM Imran also informed the cabinet of the progress on negotiations with the banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).

The cabinet -- to ensure effective implementation of the UNSC Resolution 1540 about the control on the export of goods, technology and instruments related to nuclear and biological weapons and more effective implementation of the government’s commitment to check the spread of weapons of mass destruction -- approved the delegation of some powers to the Strategic Export Control Division (SECDIV) so as to enable it make timely decisions.

The members of the board of governors of the National Institute of Child Health in Karachi include Dr Ahsan Rabbani, Prof Dr Waseem Qazi and Amir A Allahwana.

The names of Dr Hasnat Muhammad Sharif, Justice Sarmad J Usmani and Hassan Aziz Bilgarami were approved as  members of the board of governors of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in Karachi.

Dr Imtiaz A Hashmi and Prof S Tipu Sultan were given the nod as members of the board of governors of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi.

Muzammail Rasheed was appointed a member of the board of governors og PIMS Islamabad.

The cabinet, while keeping in view the requests made by the United Nations Assistance Mission (UNMA) in Afghanistan and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), allowed the transportation of a few containers from Karachi to Kabul.

The cabinet also gave the nod to the appointment of Khalid Hamid as the CEO of the National Insurance Company.
It also approved the signing of a memorandum of understanding for markets on the Pak-Iran border.

The cabinet also agreed to appoint Zaheer Abbas as the managing director of the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal. It also approved the inclusion of consumer representatives in the boards of directors of 10 electricity distribution companies. These representatives will be members of the civil society.

The decisions made by the cabinet committee on institutional reforms on March 31 were approved.

SAPM Dr Ishrat Hussain informed the participants of the meeting of the recommendations made by the committee on the manpower of various departments and ministries and bringing this number to a feasible level.

The cabinet was informed that there were currently 955,000 employees in the federal government.

In the year 2019-20, 565,000 employees were working in secretariats and attached departments, while 390,000 were working in autonomous, semi-autonomous and corporations.

 The cabinet was informed that 95% of the 955,000 employees were Grade 1-16 employees whose salaries covered 80-85% of the total expenditure.

The cabinet was informed that the number of government employees was 829,000 from 2010-11 to 2016-17, while 137,000 employees were suddenly recruited in a year (2016-17).

A total of 85% of these recruitments were made in the secretariat and subsidiaries of the federal government, while 21,000 recruitments were made in autonomous bodies.

The cabinet was informed that these employees include 35% related to security, 20% to infrastructural services, 18% to the energy sector, 5% to the social sector, 5% to commercial and taxation, and 12% to data and training. (With input from APP)