The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet approved on Friday RS2 billion for the Ministry of Information to cover the pending advertising quotas owed to media organizations, said a statement from the Finance Division.
At the beginning of the month, the Superior Court of Lahore sought responses from federal and punjab governments that seek an explanation of the lack of an official announcements policy despite the orders of the Supreme Court.
The answers were sought by Judge Farooq Haider upon hearing a petition presented by the chief organizer of PTI Punjab Aliya Hamza Malik, through his lawyer of lawyer Azhar Siddique, against the ads of the media with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the prime minister of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz.
Today, an ECC meeting was held under the presidency of the Minister of Finance, Muhammad Aurengzeb, during which the decision was made.
“The ECC considered and approved a summary of the Ministry of Information and Radiodifusion, seeking a technical complementary subsidy (TSG) of RS2B of its assigned budget of RS5.6bn.
“The approved subsidy will be used to comply with the payments liabilities for the pending advertising fees owed to the media,” the statement said.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Energy (Energy Division) Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, Minister of Petroleum, Ali Pervez Malik, Minister of the Investment Board Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, together with the president of the Pakistan stock exchange and values commission, federal secretaries and staior officials of the relevant ministers and divisions.
“The ECC also approved a proposal from the Ministry of Defense for a TSG that amounts to RS430 million for the execution of schemes of the Sustainable Development Objectives (SAP) program in the province of Punjab during the current financial year,” the statement added.
The Committee also approved the assignment of RS250m as a capital paid by the Government for the operations of the Jinnah Medical Complex & Research Center (JMC and RC).
According to the statement, this allocation will support the establishment of a latest generation medical center of 1000 beds in Islamabad. However, the ECC ordered the company JMC & RC to provide a detailed breakdown of the expenses and activities that will be covered with RS250m approved before looking for more assignments.
In addition, the ECC discussed a summary presented by the Finance Division regarding the gradual elimination of long -term financing (LTFF) of the State Bank of Pakistan to the Exim Bank.
The ECC decided that the SBP LTFF portfolio of RS330Bn would be eliminated to the Exim Bank, with an assignment of RS 1BN through a technical complementary subsidy to meet the LTFF subsidy requirement for the new portfolio for fiscal year 2025, the statement said.
In a meeting last month, the ECC approved the Pakistan membership to the New Development Bank (NDB) established by the BRICS nations and ordered the transfer of actions of all energy distribution companies (disc) to the president of Pakistan, a key condition of pending loan agencies for three decades.
