Cabinet approves establishment of PM’s Relief Fund for Palestine, Lebanon

Celina Ali

Islamabad: The Cabinet in its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday approved the establishment of ‘Prime Minister’s Relief Fund for Palestine and Lebanon’ to help the victims of Israeli brutalities.

It also issued necessary instructions to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to open an account in this regard. Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal will oversee the relief operations for Palestine and Lebanon, PM Office Media Wing said in a press release.

The cabinet was briefed by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom regarding the implementation of e-office in the federal ministries and institutions.

The meeting was informed that Pakistan’s position in the United Nations E-Governance Development Index had improved by 14 places due to the government’s measures to implement e-governance.

The meeting was further informed that the implementation of e-office was underway in all 40 divisions of the federal government while 100 percent e-office had been implemented in some ministries.

The prime minister directed to further improve the implementation of e-office and asked for reviewing of the progress in this regard after two weeks.

The cabinet also accorded approval to the agreement for subsidies in the fisheries sector in the light of the decisions of the World Trade Organization.

On the recommendation of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, the cabinet approved the signing of an agreement to grant sister-ports status to the Gwadar Port, Pakistan and Shanghai Port, China.

It also approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bilateral political consultations between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda on the recommendation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On the recommendation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the federal cabinet further approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ghana on bilateral political consultations.

On the orders of the Chief Justice Balochistan High Court and on the recommendation of the Ministry of Law and Justice, the cabinet approved grant of jurisdiction to judicial magistrate- Gwadar and judicial magistrate Hub to hear anti-narcotics cases.

The meeting endorsed the decisions taken in the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Legislative Matters held on September 25, 2024 and the decisions taken by the Cabinet Committee on Chinese Investment projects in its meeting held on September 16, 2024.

The federal cabinet ratified the decisions of the Cabinet Committee on the Government Owned Enterprises held on October 1.