Commerce Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Monday approved an initial budget of over Rs410 million to deal with the participants of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) long march with an iron hand and also backed the decision to provide cheap electricity to exporters.
Chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, a meeting of the ECC deferred a summary for fixing the wheat support price and instead agreed to first make an effort to convince Sindh to review its decision of setting the support price at Rs4,000 per 40 kilogrammes.
The ECC took up two separate summaries moved by the Interior Ministry to seek budget for dealing with the PTI’s long march. “The ECC approved a supplementary grant of Rs410.2 million in favour of the Ministry of Interior for expenses relating to law and order”, according to the Finance Ministry.
The Rs410.2 million was the estimated cost of preparations to deal with the protestors, including the deployment of a 30,000 strong force, their meal, transportation, anti-riot gear and surveillance of the protestors. The ECC was informed that in order to maintain the law and order situation and ensure effective security measures, 30,000 out-district law-enforcement agency personnel had been requisitioned for performing special security duties in Islamabad Capital Territory.
The ECC approved Rs259 million for hiring vehicles and containers, Rs35 million for food, Rs31.2 million for fuel cost and Rs18 million for anti-riot gear. Rs2.5 million has been sanctioned for arranging residence of these personnel for five days and another Rs64.4 million for purchase and installation of security cameras and other related equipment.
