ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coor­dination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on Thursday approved supplementary grants worth Rs912.5 million and an extension in the lease period to four oil and gas-producing fields for accelerating exploration activities.

The ECC meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, approved a disbursement of Rs284.5 million in financial assistance to 317 families of martyrs and injured persons of the Jan 30 terrorism incident in a Peshawar mosque, in which 84 persons embraced martyrdom and 233 persons were injured.

The families of Shaheed would be given Rs2 million each in financial support and Rs500,000 each to that of the seriously injured person.

Oil, gas exploration

On the summaries of the Petroleum Division, the ECC granted to state-run Oil & Gas Development Company

ECC also approves grants, including Rs284.5m for Peshawar blast victims

Ltd (OGDCL) a five-year renewal of Bhal Syedan Development and Production Lease (D&PL), covering an area of 16.41 sq-km located in district Attock, Punjab, with effect from Jan 1, 2022 till April 10, 2024.

Likewise, the declaration of commerciality, approval of Field Development Plan, and grant of Development and Production Lease over Fazil Discovery (Mubarik Block) for five years from

June 8, 2022, was granted to United Energy Pakistan (UEP) Beta GmbH, to produce remaining commercially viable reserves.

In the same pattern, a five-year extension was given to Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (POL) over Pariwali Development

and Production Lease (D&PL) field covering an area of 121.95 sq-km located in Attock district, Punjab, with effect from July 1, 2022.

Similarly, five-year extension was also given to POL over Minwal Development and Production Lease (D&PL), covering an area of 18.85 sq-km located in district Chakwal, Punjab, from April 1, 2023.

Grant for BISP

The ECC also approved Rs500m supplementary grant to the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation & Social Safety for the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Nashonuma project as part of financial assistance from the Italian government under a debt swap arrangement to prevent stunting in children of three Balochistan districts — Jhal Magsi, Khuzdar and Lasbela.

The grant would be utilised in the already functional conditional cash transfer initiative linked with health and nutrition. The project spans six months from April to September. An agreement has already been signed between the Pakistan-Italian Debt for Development Swap Agreement (PIDSA) and the government of Pakistan on April 4.

The ECC also approved a Rs67m grant to the Ministry of National Health Services as a rupee cover for $0.4m committed by the World Bank to

utilise IDA loan under the “Pandemic Response Effectiveness in Pakistan (PREP)” initiative for 2022-23 and another Rs61m to Federal Shariah Court to meet a shortfall in providing pay and allowances to its staff during the current fiscal year.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2023