• Cabinet okays PM’s Relief Fund for Palestine and Lebanon; Ahsan Iqbal to lead relief operations
• Aurangzeb sees macroeconomic stability, says policy rate will fall

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is expected to sign agreements and memorandums of understanding worth $2 billion with Saudi Arabia in various sectors during an upcoming visit of a Saudi delegation to Islamabad, a move aimed at bolstering economic ties between the two nations.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced this while chairing a meeting of the federal cabinet on Tuesday.

The Saudi delegation, led by Minister for Investment Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, is set to visit Pak­istan from Oct 9 to 11, about a week ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Islamabad. The delegation is expected to include representatives from both government agencies and the private sector, according to Dawn.com.

The prime minister than­ked China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE for their support in obtaining the IMF loan facility and also mentioned last week’s “successful” visit of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim when two sides agreed that Pakistan would export halal meat and rice to Malaysia.

PM Shehbaz said consequent to the “finest level” of teamwork, the IMF programme had been approved, inflation was reduced from 32 per cent to 6.9pc, exports and remittances were on surge and the stock exchange was skyrocketing. Sabotaging all these efforts for the sake of politics would be the biggest conspiracy to the country, he remarked.

Highlighting his government’s reform agenda, he mentioned the doubled number of tax return filers, broadening tax base and digitisation of the FBR.

He said oil prices had been reduced for the fifth time, and a Rs50bn relief package was announced for power consumers of the protected category, apart from the Pun­jab government’s Rs55bn package on top of that.

Thanking the IMF chief for her support in approving the IMF facility for Pakistan, the prime minister said she was also appreciative of the reforms introduced by the incumbent and caretaker governments.

In a separate statement on Tuesday, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb also stressed that macroeconomic stability had begun to take hold, with currency stability and $10.7 billion in reserves following the receipt of the first tranche from the International Monetary Fund.

He said inflation had dropped to 6.9pc, a 44-month low, with all three elements — headline inflation, core inflation, and average inflation — now in single digits.

The minister expressed the optimism that the policy rate would gradually dec­rease in the upcoming State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) monetary policy meeting.

He emphasised that Karachi inter-bank offered rate (Kibor), a key factor, was already below expected levels.

Furthermore, the government had reduced its borrowing to minimise debt servicing costs, enabling banks to lend more to the private sector.

Fund for Palestine, Lebanon

The cabinet approved the establishment of PM’s Relief Fund for Palestine and Lebanon to help the victims of Israeli brutalities, issuing necessary instructions to the State Bank of Pakistan to open an account in this regard.

Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal will oversee the relief operations, PM Office’s Media Wing said in a press release.

Later, the cabinet was briefed by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom on the implementation of e-office in the federal ministries, institutions and departments.

The meeting was informed the implementation of e-office was underway in all 40 divisions of the federal government while 100 per cent e-office had been implemented in some ministries.

The prime minister directed the ministry to further improve the implementation of e-office and asked for reviewing the progress in this regard after two weeks.

Other decisions

The cabinet accorded approval to an agreement for subsidies in the fisheries sector in the light of decisions made by the World Trade Organisation.

On the recommendation of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, the cabinet approved the signing of an agreement to grant sister-ports status to the Gwadar Port and Shanghai Port.

It also approved the signing of an MoU on bilateral political consultations between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda.

On the recommendation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the cabinet approved the signing of an MoU with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ghana on bilateral political consultations.

On the order of the Balochistan High Court chief justice and the recommendation of the Ministry of Law and Justice, the cabinet approved grant of jurisdiction to Gwadar judicial magistrate and Hub judicial magistrate to hear anti-narcotics cases.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2024