The federal cabinet meeting, held Tuesday with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair, did not take any decision on increase of electricity tariff of Karachi Electric Supply Company (K Electric), 24NewsHD TV channel reported.

Prime Minister Khan has summoned federal cabinet meeting on the K-electric issue on Thursday. The cabinet meeting also discussed the overall political and economic situation of the country.

24NewsHD quoting its sources said in the federal cabinet meeting Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar and Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Syed Aminul Haque opposed raising power tariffs for consumers saying that electricity price hike would be inappropriate when Karachi is already facing power shortage.

The cabinet also deferred the proposal to put the burden of Rs73 billion imported gas on domestic and commercial consumers. The cabinet also deliberated upon the SOPs to mitigate coronavirus during Eidul Azha. A briefing has been given on the situation of current coronavirus and SOPs of Eid-ul-Adha.

Minister for Railway Sheikh Rasheed demanded to reopen restaurants, hotels and marriage halls with SOPs. He said that the closure of hotels and restaurants has been affecting the poor employees.

Prime Minister Khan has referred the reopening of the hotels and marquees to National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). Now NCOC will decide about the hotels and wedding halls reopening.

The cabinet has approved appointments of directors’ generals for National Institute of Electronics and Pakistan National Accreditation Council. The cabinet meeting has also deferred implementation on decisions of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

Information Minister Shibli Faraz said the cabinet discussed pension issues and issue of fake accounts on social media for spreading wrong news.

“Better system for people’s pension has been introduced,” he added. “The government has come into power for just 20 months and has been correcting past mistakes.”

Information Minister said he was not satisfied on the inquiry conducted about wrong map of Azad Jammu Kashmir broadcasted on Pakistan Television News (PTV). He said the new inquiry has also completed and it will be presented before Standing Committee.