Islamabad, February 02, 2022 (PPI-OT):Federal Minister for Education, Professional Training, National Heritage and Culture Shafqat Mahmood presided over the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Institutional Reforms (CCIR) today at Cabinet division.

The meeting was also attended by Syed Fakhar Imam, Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research, Dr. Fehmida Mirza, Federal Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination and Muhammad Shahzad Arbab, SAPM on Establishment. Commerce division gave a presentation to the committee on Export Development Fund (EDF) which was created through an act of parliament (EDF act 1999) and according to the act, EDF would be administered by board of administrators.

Commerce division requested the CCIR to issue a notification for EDF as an autonomous body. The CCIR after taking views of Cabinet division on the subject matter, directed the Commerce division to submit a summery to CCIR and after its endorsement, EDF would be notified as autonomous body.

Petroleum division requested the committee to review the decision of 2019 by CCIR on Saindak Metal Limited to include it in the list of entities proposed to be devolved to the provinces. Petroleum division was of the view that SML was a public sector corporate entity wholly owned by GOP and this project was developed from initial exploration to commercial production phase with Federal government funding amounting to more than 29 billion while government of Balochistan is not willing to recover its ownership.

The view of planning commission was that the federal govt could not own a company. The decision on it was deferred for further deliberation. Pakistan Railways briefed the committee about Railway Estate Development and Management Company (REDAMCO) which is a public sector company of a Railways division.

The committee deliberated, whether matter of one hundred sixty-eight thousand acre Railway’s’ land should be managed by REDAMCO or should it be transferred to an authority being established by Federal government to manage all the State lands and properties.

Apex court judgement about state’s land and its commercial use was also reviewed by the committee. The CCIR gave two weeks’ time for further consultation between Ministry of Law and Pakistan Railways on this matter before making any decision.

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