PM taps minister to lead cabinet economic panel

Prime Minister Imran Khan has declined to lead the cabinet’s Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC), choosing Finance Minister Asad Umar to lead the reconstituted economic decision-making body.A senior government official said that the cabinet division had moved a summary to the prime minister seeking his approval to head four major cabinet committees on restructuring, privatisation, energy, and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).The prime minister, however, appointed his finance minister as chairman of the ECC, which has 12 other members, six of whom remain to be appointed.The official said that the decisions of the finance minister-led cabinet committee would have to be endorsed by the federal cabinet to give them legal cover.Other members of the ECC so far are ministers Farogh Naseem (law and justice), Ghulam Abbasi (petroleum), Khusro Bakhtiar (planning and development ), and Sheikh Rashid Ahmed (railways), and the prime minister’s advisers Razak Dawood (commerce and textiles ) and Dr Ishrat Husain (institutional reforms and austerity).The ministers for communications, national food security, power, privatisation, statistics, and water resources are due to be appointed to the ECC.The official said that there are no set standards and rules on who should head the ECC or any other sub-committees of the cabinet.Different prime ministers have made varying decisions in the past.He explained that it is the prime minister’s prerogative, under the Rules of Business 1973, to appoint as many committees of the cabinet as he or she desired, and to assign any subcommittee of the cabinet to anyone of their cabinet colleagues.Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi headed the ECC himself after replacing the finance minister at the time, Ishaq Dar.Abbasi’s decision brought back the direct control of the Prime Minister’s Office over federal ministries and divisions that it had when Shaukat Aziz was prime minister under retired General Pervez Musharraf’s rule.Former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani initially continued with the arrangement when he inherited the government.Syed Naveed Qamar was finance minister at the time.The authority was subsequently transferred when Shaukat Tarin took the reins of the ministry.Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif delegated all economic and financial powers to Ishaq Dar who reportedly headed, at one time, more than four dozen committees, including those on legal, constitutional, and political affairs.Meanwhile, the first meeting of the reconstituted committee has been called for today, to take up major issues including an increase in consumer gas prices by an average of 30%.The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority had determined the rise, but the caretaker government declined to pass it on to the consumers even though it was legally required to do so within 40 days of the proposal.The caretaker government had contended that this increase was a major policy decision, which ought to be made by the new-elected government.According to the agenda, the ECC will also take up the issues of the liabilities of the Pakistan State Oil, rising circular debt in the power sector, and the predicted shortage of fertilisers.