Council of Common Interests: Energy dominates of CCI meeting

Body decides to convene energy conference.

ISLAMABAD: Energy and power dominated the agenda of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting on Thursday.

Amidst a flurry of approvals, the council decided to convene another energy conference to determine, and resolve, persisting snags vis-a-vis the energy crisis.

The CCI, chaired by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, met with six items on its agenda. It approved the National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2012, the Petroleum Exploration and Production 2012 policy, though only in principle, and the financing of provincial population welfare departments at the level of 2010-11, as per earlier commitment of the federal government.

The council also approved an amendment in its earlier decision for charging Rs0.30 per million acre feet (MAF) of water and Rs0.5 for each unit of electricity produced from hydel and nuclear sources.

On a presentation by the Sindh chief minister, the premier directed the planning and economic affairs divisions to provide support in arranging funds for Thar Coal Project on a priority basis. Gilani also directed them to incentivise power generation by sugar mills, which could generate around 2,000 megawatts per year.

He also directed the Finance Secretary to hold a meeting with provincial governments to work out the financial outlay following the passage of the 18th Amendment. The meeting also approved last year’s annual report which is to be laid before parliament as a constitutional requirement.

Warm-up meetings

Earlier, in a one-on-one meeting at the Prime Minister House, the finance advisor briefed the premier on the economy and progress in key areas such as domestic tax collection, which registered a 26% increase during the first half of the current financial year, compared to the corresponding period last year.

The premier also gave him guidelines on provision of ‘relief’ in the next budget.

The premier also met the four provincial chief ministers prior to the CCI meeting.

Senate elections and the draft of 20th Amendment came under discussion, sources said.

Talking about his visit to Qatar, Gilani said his counterpart, Amir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, was upbeat about the absorption of Pakistani skilled manpower to contribute towards building the infrastructure for the 2022 Olympic Games scheduled to be held in the Gulf state.

With additional input from APP

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2012.