Economic Advisory Council reconstituted

PM will be chairman, finance minister vice-chairman

By Mehtab Haider

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has approved the reconstitution of Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to recommend macro-economic stabilisation measures and carry forward the reform agenda for robust and sustained economic growth.

The EAC shall be chaired by the prime minister. The minister for finance and revenue shall be the vice chairman. In the absence of the prime minister, the finance minister may chair the meeting. The EAC shall include private sector members as well as official members.

According to notification issued here by the Finance Division on Saturday, the prime minister has been pleased to reconstitute the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) with the composition, as PM will be the chairman while Finance Minister Hammad Azhar will be the vice-chairman of the high-profile forum, comprising 25 other members. The government did not appoint Shaukat Tarin as convenor of the Economic Advisory Council.

The 13 EAC private members include economist and CEO SDPI Abid Suleri, renowned business person Arif Habib, Asif Qureshi, economist Ejaz Nabi, Farooq Rehmatullah, business tycoon Muhammad Ali Tabba, economist Dr Rashid Amjad, economist Salman Shah, former finance minister Shaukat Tarin, former finance minister and former governor SBP Shamshad Akhtar, banker Sultan Allana, former governor SBP Syed Saleem Raza and Zaid Ali Muhammad.

The 12 official members of the committee will include the ministers for Energy, Planning and Development, Industries and Production, Food Security and Research, and Economic Affairs. The advisers to PM on Commerce, Institutional Reform and Austerity, Overseas Pakistanis and Power and Petroleum will also be among the official members, along with BOI chairman and the SBP governor.

There are several other renowned economists such as Dr Hafiz A Pasha, Dr Ashfaque Hassan Khan, Dr Pervez Tahir and Sakib Sherani, who were not made part of such high-profile forum because they used to present more independent view on the national economic issues.

The EAC will have an advisory and capacity enhancement relationship with the government of Pakistan. It will engage with economic institutions collaboratively and synergetically. The EAC will follow the consultative process and suggest policy initiatives that will further strengthen and optimise financial and economic policies in order to enhance their welfare impact for the citizens. The ultimate goal of the EAC is to promote analytically sound and evidence -based reforms and initiatives after taking all stakeholders on board. The Ministry of Finance will be the nodal government agency for the EAC.

The re-constitution of the Economic Advisory Council is aimed at framing an agenda for economic reforms in an entirely non-partisan manner and promoting an active and informed debate that leads to sound policy making, analytical vetting and active monitoring as envisaged by the leadership for sustained institutional reforms and modernisation of the Public Sector and enhance public welfare.