NA committee passes CPEC Authority (Amend) Bill 2020

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Tuesday passed the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority (Amendment) Bill 2020 with majority votes.

The meeting chaired by MNA Junaid Akbar discussed in detail the draft of the bill and decided to pass it with majority of votes.

The Committee inquired from the planning ministry that what salary package was being given to the present CPEC chairman.

The ministry replied that salary was not being paid to the CPEC chairman, and that he had not signed any MoU after the expiry of the CPEC Ordinance.

The members who submitted their note of dissent against the bill included Muhammad Sajjad, Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhry, Muhammad Junaid, Anwar Chaudhry, Sardar Muhammad, Irfan Dogar and Syed Agha Rafiullah.

The meeting was also attended by Planning Minister Asad Umar, MNAs Sher Akbar Khan, Saleh Muhammad, Shaukat Ali, Syed Faiz-ul-Hassan, Nawab Sher, Dr Seemi Bokhari, Imran Khattak and Muhammad Sajjad.

Earlier, the Committee inquired the compliance status of its previous three meetings and the ministry responded positively.

The Committee directed Higher Education Commission (HEC) to give detailed briefing on their financial needs so that it could be able to recommend additional funds for HEC.

The Committee further asked why the HEC had stopped scholarships to the students who were receiving higher education abroad on scholarship basis.

The Commission replied that they had not stopped the scholarships but the universities all over the world were not accepting foreign students due to the pandemic of COVID-19.