ECC okays Rs2bn for info ministry to cover outstanding ads dues owed to media – Pakistan

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Friday approved Rs2 billion for the information ministry to cover outstanding advertisement dues owed to the media, according to a press release by the finance division.

Earlier in the month, the Lahore High Court sought replies from the federal and Punjab governments seeking an explanation for lack of a policy on official advertisements despite Supreme Court orders.

The replies were sought by Justice Farooq Haider while hearing a petition filed by PTI Punjab chief organiser Aliya Hamza Malik, through her counsel Advocate Azhar Siddique, against media advertisements featuring Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.

During the meeting chaired by Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb, “The ECC considered and approved a summary from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, seeking a technical supplementary grant [TSG] of Rs 2bn from its allocated budget of Rs 5.6bn.

“The approved grant will be used to meet the liabilities of payments for outstanding advertisement dues owed to media houses,” the press release said.

The meeting was attended by the Minister of Energy (Power Division) Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervez Malik, Minister for Board of Investment Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh along with the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, federal secretaries, and senior officials from relevant ministries and divisions.

“The ECC further approved a proposal from the Ministry of Defence for a TSG amounting to Rs 430 million for the execution of Sustainable Development Goals Achievement Programme schemes in the province of Punjab during the current financial year,” the statement read.

Moreover, the committee approved the allocation of Rs250m as the government’s paid-up capital for the operations of the Jinnah Medical Complex and Research Centre (JMC&RC) Company.

According to the statement, this allocation will support the establishment of a “state-of-the-art”, 1,000-bed academic medical centre in Islamabad.

However, the ECC directed the JMC&RC Company to provide a detailed breakdown of the expenditures and activities to be covered by the approved Rs250m before seeking further allocations.

In addition, the ECC discussed a summary presented by the finance division regarding the phasing out of the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) long-term financing facility (LTFF) to Exim Bank.

The ECC decided that the SBP’s LTFF portfolio of Rs330bn would be phased out to the Exim Bank, with an allocation of Rs1bn through a TSG to meet the LTFF subsidy requirement for the new portfolio for FY2025, the statement said.

In a meeting last month, the ECC approved Pakistan’s membership to the New Development Bank (NDB) set up by the BRICS nations and ordered the transfer of shares of all power distribution companies (Discos) to the President of Pakistan — a key condition of the lending agencies pending for three decades.