The Council of Common Interests, while taking serious note of the critical issue of malnutrition and stunted growth among the children, Wednesday unanimously agreed upon launching of a development project “Tackling Malnutrition Induced Stunting in Pakistan” at a total cost of approximately Rs 350 billion and duration of five years (FY 2020-25).
Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired the 43rd meeting of CCI, which was attended by the chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
It was agreed that 50 % cost i.e. approx Rs 175 billion would be provided by the Federal Government and equal distribution to be made by the provincial governments for five years, a press release issued by the PM Media Wing said. The project would target 30% of the country’s total population, including 15 million women of reproductive age group and 3.9 million children under the age of 2 years through nutrition interventions.
It was agreed that the Federal Government would provide for nutrition supplementary commodities, capacity building of new & existing healthcare workers, and research & monitoring while the provinces would contribute towards implementation through involvement of existing Lady Health Workers (LHWs, Community Health Workers, target population identification, programme management, institutional arrangement, evaluation and data sharing.
The CCI considered the request of KP Government for one-time permission to swap / substitute arrangement of one exploration block with another prospective block within the province. It accorded the one-time approval for the swap with the condition that commitments accruing out of previous award of block should be completed and the Petroleum Division should incorporate a time limit for such swap so that future requests were catered for.
The CCI also reviewed implementation status of previous decisions. Keeping in view the importance of developing a consensus on the energy issues, it was decided that the next meeting of CCI be called in the first month of next year to finalize issues related to the costs of electricity, gas & fuel; and to resolve water related matters. The prime minister emphasized that the energy issues carried a national impact and it was necessary that a consensus was developed among the provinces where a win-win result was achieved for the benefit of the people of Pakistan.
