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Cabinet gives go head to mortgaging country’s 2 motorways, 3 airports

Cabinet gives go head to mortgaging country’s 2 motorways, 3 airports
June 22, 2021

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Preparing to impose a heavier debt burden on the debt-ridden country as the federal cabinet has given go head to mortgaging country’s two motorways, three airports and Islamabad Expressway.

According to the sources, the federal government has approved huge loans by mortgaging government assets. A loan of Rs 1,800 billion will be taken in the next financial year by mortgaging government assets. Three airports, two motorways and the highways will be mortgaged.

The sources also said that the highways that have been approved for mortgage include Islamabad Expressway, Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway and Pindi Bhattian Lahore section.

The federal cabinet has approved the issuance of Islamic Sukuk bonds and the import of 1 million tonnes of wheat. The cabinet has given full approval to the Finance Ministry s summary of issuance of sukuk bonds and the Finance Ministry may fix further assets in it.

On the other hand, the federal cabinet approved the appointment of Aslam Khan as the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) chairman.

Briefing the media on the decisions taken by the cabinet in today’s meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair, Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry gave green signal to the import of one million tonnes of wheat to meet rising demand of the commodity in the country. "The approval to import more wheat was given due to the ballooning population," he added.

The cabinet meeting deferred its decision on issuance of prohibited arms licences and appointment of the CEO of the Sukkur Electric Power Company.

Besides, Fawad said the cabinet approved the draft Public Property Encroachment Bill 2021 and appointment of the executive director of the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission. He said the government will bring in a new law to remove encroachments from its pricey properties.

The cabinet endorsed its Economic Coordination Committee’s (ECC) decision of increasing cash stipend of Ehsaas Kafalat beneficiaries by Rs2,000 per annum.

In a message on his official Twitter account, Prime Minister's Special Assistant on Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar announced, “Cabinet has ratified ECC’s decision to approve the Ministry of Povery Alleviation’s proposal to increase #EhsaasKafaalat stipend & grant equivalent of an extra month of payment to all beneficiaries every year.”