Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday said that the federal cabinet has approved formulation of a separate judicial system for overseas Pakistanis to ensure summary trial.
Briefing the media about the decisions taken in the federal cabinet meeting, Fawad said that these laws will be enacted in view of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision to facilitate overseas Pakistanis, who are the precious asset of the country.
He said a similar judicial system will also be established in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, where PTI is in power.
He said the cabinet also expressed concern over massive stay orders due to which the Federal Board of Revenue is unable to collect revenue of over Rs3 trillion.
He said the law ministry has been asked to take up this matter with the chief justice of the Supreme Court and the chief justices of high courts.
He said it has been recommended that there should be a separate forum to resolve such policy issues. He said the cabinet hoped that the chief justice of the Supreme Court will present a serious point of view of the judiciary over this matter.
Fawad said the cabinet called for enacting stringent laws against use of filthy language and hate speech on social media.
He said that the cabinet approved the export of 34,500 metric tonnes of Mung beans to Afghanistan under the World Food Programme.
He said the cabinet approved reducing prices of Remdesivir injection from Rs3,967 to Rs2,308 for the treatment of Covid-19 patients. He said it is a matter of great satisfaction that Pakistan has now become a major exporter of Covid related material, including Remdesivir injection.
He said the cabinet approved a 15 percent increase in the salaries of civil armed forces and a 15 percent disparity allowance for the employees of the federal government from basic pay scale one to 19.
He said the cabinet also congratulated the Prime Minister for PTI’s victory in local bodies’ elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Meanwhile, Energy Minister Hammad Azhar said that the federal cabinet has given approval for the extension on the duration of the Saindak Mine lease for another 15-years to the Chinese company working on the Saindak Gold and Copper Mine project in Balochistan.
In a tweet on Tuesday, the minister said that as per the newly negotiated agreement, the share of the government of Pakistan has been increased by 3 percent from 50:50 to 53:47 in Pakistan’s favour.
He said the Chinese company has also agreed to enhance rent, royalty and social uplift payments to the federal and Balochistan governments. Accordingly, the royalty to the government of Balochistan (GoB) has been enhanced from 5 percent to 6.5 percent of sales revenue, social uplift support to GoB has been raised from 5 percent to 6.5 percent of the net profit while annual rent has been increased by up to 40 percent (indexed with price).
The aforementioned agreement has been concluded in consultation with all stakeholders including GOB, the minister added.
Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque on Tuesday said that the cabinet has approved the first digital Cloud Policy and Personal Data Protection Bill to ensure the privacy of online data.
In a statement, he said, the bill aims to ensure the privacy of online data, especially for citizens, public and private entities, while Cloud First policy will cover federal ministries, departments, and autonomous entities.
The minister thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan and all members of the federal cabinet for extending support for the approval of the policy and the bill and said that the process would help Pakistan to adapt to the digital world in terms of global requirements.
He said that the primary objective of the data production bill is to ensure the privacy of online data, information and private, important content of Pakistani citizens, government and private entities while maintaining their privacy.
Referring to the details of Cloud First policy, the minister said that the process of heavy spending and upgrading of various data centers of ministries and agencies is difficult for which it was necessary to have a common platform.
