Cabinet approves agreements, including oil refinery, with Saudi Arabia

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – The federal cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday approved the establishment of an oil refinery with the collaboration of Saudi Arabia in Gwadar. The meeting also approved to turn the PM House into National University of Central Excellence. It declared the appointments power delegated to former finance minister Ishaq Dar as illegal. As a result, heads of four banks and as many regulatory institutions will lose their jobs. Finance Minister Asad Umar briefed the cabinet about the economic situation. The cabinet expressed satisfaction over approving Supplementary Finance Bill. It appreciated the steps taken by the finance minister and his team for the betterment of economy. Talking to the media after the federal cabinet meeting, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Ch said that the national exchequer was plundered by the previous government. “When you talk about someone, he gets angry,” he maintained. He said that a website had been launched to review the performance of the 100-day plan of the PTI government. He said that an amount of Rs 180 million and Rs 2.3 million was earned by auctioning the vehicles and buffaloes of the PM House. The minister said that the PPP government regularized 163,000 employees and as a result, the pension budget of Radio Pakistan exceeded Rs one billion. He said that former governments appointed their relatives to institutions. Minister for Petroleum Ch Ghulam Rasool said that the matter of borrowing oil had not been discussed with the Saudi delegation. He announced that they would get the forensic audit of New Islamabad Airport and Neelum Jhelum projects. He said that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish an oil refinery in Gwadar with in near future. He said, "The cabinet gave approval for the agreements discussed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia during a visit of the Kingdom's delegation last week for establishing of oil refinery. Both the countries will sign MoU after the arrival of Saudi Arabia energy minister to Pakistan by the end of current month or in the beginning of next month.” The minister said, "Saudi Arabia is interested in Gwadar and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Moreover, they have expressed their ardent desire to immediately invest in an oil refinery, cost, capacity and others modalities will be finalized soon."