Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has constituted the Economic Advisory Council to review and formulate economic policies in a more holistic manner.
According to a notification issued by Finance Division on Thursday, the 21-member Advisory Council will be chaired by the Prime Minister.
The members of council include Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhary, Miftah Ismail, Saleem Mandviwalla, Ms 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, Aurangzeb, HBL, Waqar Ahmaf Malik, MD/CEO Fauji Foundation, Salman Ahmed, Shahzad Salim, Rahman Naseem, Musadaq Zulqarnain and Dr. ljaz Nabi.
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The EAC will be convened on weekly basis on the issues of national economic importance.
According to the notification, the council would review overall economic condition of the country and propose possible corrective measures considering available resources of the country.
It would 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.
Specific sub-committees will be formed for focused work with the timelines and defined scope.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on 18th April said the journey of the progress of Pakistan had resumed after the four years of halted development during the tenure of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
Addressing here at the inauguration of the mass transit bus project on Peshawar More to Islamabad International Airport route, he said being the representative of the coalition government, he would ensure fast implementation of the delayed or suspended projects of public importance.
The Islamabad Metro Bus Service project, which was due to become operational by 2018, faced a massive delay by the previous government and was launched within five days after PM Shehbaz Sharif assumed his office.
The 25.6-kilometer bus route will benefit an estimated 50,000 commuters on daily basis.
PM Shehbaz said the project was a gift from the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif to the people of Islamabad aimed at facilitating them through a decent transport service.
He regretted that the route plan of Islamabad was reduced abruptly to cut the cost from Rs 16 billion to Rs 12 billion, which he said, caused immense loss to the materialization of the project.
He said though the development funds were available to complete the public welfare projects during the tenure of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government, however, the will to serve the masses was lacking.
He announced a free-of-cost metro bus service for passengers during the holy month of Ramazan.
Chairman Capital Development Authority Engineer Farkhand Iqbal said on instructions of PM Shehbaz Sharif, the CDA and National Highway had made possible the launch of the project within five days.
He said 15 buses with orange skin would be run on the route in collaboration with a Turkish company, besides the four buses as the airport shuttle.
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He said the ticketing system of the metro bus had been completed, however, would be opened with the approval of the prime minister.
He said a mobile application was being launched for easy access to the buses coming after every five minutes and the shuttle by every 25 minutes. The blue line bus will be initiated in near future on the Rawat-Islamabad Airport route.
Later, PM Shehbaz Sharif took a ride of the bus on the inaugurated route flanked by Turkish ambassador Mustafa Yardakul, Chinese Charge d’Affaires Pang Chunxue, and parliamentarians including Mohsin Dawar, Ali Wazir, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Hanif Abbasi, and others.
The Islamabad metro bus will be covered in orange skin for route coding. The NHA to N5 station will take 6-8 minutes and from N5 to the airport around 25-30 minutes. The shuttle service will be run on a stretch of 11 kilometres.
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