NEC meeting approves Rs1675bn development budget

LONDON/ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday presided over a meeting of the National Economic Council through a video link from London.

The NEC meeting considered the proposed Annual Development Plan (ADP) and the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). The meeting approved development budget worth Rs1,675 billion for the fiscal year 2016-2017.

The meeting was attended by federal ministers, chief ministers of the four federation units, governor and chief minister of Gilgit Baltistan among others.

PM Nawaz applauded the Minister of Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal and his team for preparing a development plan in line with the economic growth. He said the China Pakistan Economic Corridor has the potential to raise the country's GDP.

At the start of the meeting, chief ministers of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khawaja Mohammad Asif, Ahsan Iqbal and Zafar Iqbal Jhagra in their interaction with the prime minister conveyed their wishes for his speedy recovery.

Following the NEC meeting, PM Nawaz presided over the meeting of his cabinet and approved budget proposals.

Later, talking to reporters outside the Pakistan High Commission, PM Nawaz said Pakistan would have achieved the previous year's GDP target if it had not missed on goals in the agricultural sector.

He expressed hope that the economic situation would improve this year due to his government's policies.

Prime Minister Nawaz is in London where he is to undergo an open heart surgery on Tuesday (tomorrow) and doctors have advised him to take a week long rest after the operation, his family and party officials said.

The PM’s son Hamza Shahbaz is also in London to oversee the surgery. Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif said on her official Twitter account that the surgery would be for perforation of the heart, a complication from an earlier procedure in 2011.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said the prime minister was continuing to oversee the state affairs in the days before his surgery. It is, however, natural and understandable that the prime minister will be off from any activities when he is actually operated on by the doctors, the statement said.