Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Tuesday cleared that all religious seminaries across the country would be linked with the Ministry of Education, but they would continue to work independently.
Briefing the media on the cabinet meeting, she said a wrong perception was made in the media that those seminaries would work under the Ministry of Education. She said the cabinet was briefed by Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood regarding the initiatives to bring 30,000 religious seminaries into national mainstream. She said the education minister informed the cabinet that a one window registration of those seminaries and monitoring of their funds were important for their mainstreaming. She said the Ministry of Education would play the role of a facilitator to the seminaries, adding that modern education was the right of the every child studying at those seminaries. “We wanted to provide modern and quality education to them, as they are also our children,” she added. She said the students would also be taught about use of social media so that they could be brought out of isolation.
As per the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Firdous said a uniformed curriculum would be introduced in all schools and seminaries. The Ministry of Education would also assist foreign students studying at those seminaries, she added. In addition, she said, vocational training would be imparted to seminary students for their capacity building so that they could be more useful member of society after their graduation.
Firdous said the federal cabinet also decided to abolish budgetary allocations for all the ministries and divisions meant for entertainment and gifts with the aim to ensure judicious utilisation of public money for welfare of the common man.
“There were some provisions in ministries and divisions, under which funds were allocated for ‘chai and pani’ (tea and water). The cabinet has formally abolished these provisions today. So now there will be no entertainment and gift funds there,”
She said the cabinet also decided to end the culture of additional charge in all the ministries and divisions within the next three months, as the posts would be filled properly. No summary for approval of additional charge would be presented in the cabinet in the future, she added.
Firdous said the cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, deliberated on 16 agenda items and most important among them was ensuring improved supply of electricity to consumers during the holy month of Ramazan, especially during Sehr and Iftar hours. She said the cabinet ratified the decisions of the previous meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee.
The special assistant said the cabinet also ratified agreement on technical cooperation between Pakistan and Brazil, besides approving the annual report of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) that would be presented in parliament. She said the cabinet was also informed about the steps taken by the Ministry of Health to reduce the prices of medicines.
She said the cabinet had decided to renew the licences of cellular companies worth $449 million. She said that the cabinet had also decided to establish Pakistan China Engineering University at the Prime Minister’s House. She said that China would provide about Rs 400 billion for the university.
She said that cabinet had also decided to reactivate the Pakistan Steel Mills through public-private partnership.
She expressed confidence that the next federal budget would be in line with the public expectations and all allied parties would be taken into confidence before presenting the fiscal budget in parliament. Commenting on Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif’s return to jail, she said it was unfortunate that a convicted person was going back to jail with such pump and show by his party. She said that in civilised societies, convicted persons were not glorified, adding that glorifying the convicted person was tantamount to committing the same crime. She said convicted Nawaz Sharif had been violating all rules and laws of the jail manual.
Minister for Power Omar Ayub Khan said the government had set the target to get rid of the power circular debt by December 2020.
He said that during 2017-18, the circular debt had increased by Rs 450 billion, which would be brought down to Rs 293 billion during the current year and Rs 96 billion by 2019-20.
He said the prime minister was told that a 25-year plan had been finalised to bridge the ever increasing gap between demand and supply of electricity. Moreover, a fresh policy for power production through alternative energy resources had been formulated, he added.
Under the policy, the minister said 20 percent of total electricity would be produced from alternative resources by 2025, which would be enhanced to 30 percent by 2030.
The minister said that the ministry’s drive to curb power theft and recovery of dues had brought in positive outcomes. Within four months, the additional power dues worth Rs 48 billion had been recovered that would touch Rs 80 billion mark by year end and Rs 190 billion till June 2020.
He said that a special focus was being given to handle the losses caused by theft, technical and transmission issues that were coming to fruition.