PML-N's proposal for caretaker PM just political joke: Kaira
Qamar Zaman Kaira says consultation is underway for the caretaker government.
ISLAMABAD – (Dunya News) Briefing newsmen about proceedings of the Cabinet along with Finance Minister Saleem Mandviwalla‚ the Information Minister said that the present government united the whole nation against terrorism and it was taking steps to root out terrorism instead of compromising with the terrorists. He said the government was accountable only to the masses.
Kaira said it had been decided that provincial quota in federal government jobs would be extended for another 20 years.
He said the meeting also allowed import of non-prohibited bore arms to curb their smuggling. He said these arms would be purchased those to whom prohibited bore licenses are issued.
The cabinet decided to provide 12 billion rupee worth of subsidy on agricultural tube wells for the benefit of farmers. The Minister said unlike the general impression neighboring countries of Pakistan are offering more subsidies to their farmers then we are giving to our farmers.
The cabinet allowed Unaccounted For Gas (UFG) at 50 percent of the demand made by the gas companies as an interim relief to them. It formed a committee to determine the pricing formula and arrive at the exact volume of the UFG within three months, the minister said.
Kaira said Cabinet Committee on prevention of corruption presented its 12 point recommendations to the Cabinet which were approved by it.
The Information Minister said a review of the performance of the present Cabinet was also presented before the meeting. It was told that the cabinet held 130 meetings and made 1561 decisions. Out of them‚ 1227 have already been implemented and the remaining 334 are under implementation.
Speaking on this occasion, Federal Finance Minister Saleem Mandviwalla said a budget strategy document 2013-16 was presented before the Cabinet.
The Minister gave a comparison of the economic conditions of the country that prevailed in 2008-09 and now and said the real GDP growth was just 1.7% when the Government assumed power and today the target for 2012-13 is 4.3%.
He said inflation at that time was 25% and today it is between 7.4 to 8% while fiscal deficit stands at 6.5% of the GDP as against 7.6% in 2008-09.
Mandviwalla said FBR revenues have increased from 1 trillion to over 2 trillion rupees; PSDP from 280 to 450 billion rupees; stock market index has gone up from 4800 to over 18000 points and remittances by overseas Pakistanis have increased from 6.4 billion to 13.5 billion dollars. Interest rate has come down from 17% to 9.5% and foreign exchange reserves today stand at 8.2 billion dollars as against 6 to 7 billion dollars when the Government assumed power.
