ECC meeting approves foreign funding policy for NGOs: sources

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Wednesday chaired a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) and decided to provide additional wheat to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, ARY NEWS reported.

According to sources having details regarding the decisions made during the ECC meeting, 500,000 metric tonnes of wheat was approved for the KP province from the stock of SUPARCO.

Moreover, the sources said that the policy relating to foreign funding to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also came under discussion and it was later approved after deliberations.

In December 2020, Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered action against foreign-funded NGOs defaming Pakistan within the next 48-hours.

Moreover, a report on operational losses to be incurred through the supply of petrol via pipeline was also discussed in the meeting. The ECC, according to sources, has approved 0.5 percent of operational losses through the pipeline.

“Technical grants for federal ministries and grants for Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission was approved during the meeting,” they said.

In the last ECC meeting, a grant of US$1 billion was approved for the procurement of COVID vaccine to be administered to seven million people.

The release of US$180 million was also approved for the first phase of vaccine procurement and it would be handed over to the NDMA for the purpose.

“Covid vaccines including CanSino, Sinopharm, Sinovac, and Pfizer would be purchased from the US$1 billion approved for vaccine procurement,” they said.

the ECC according to sources also approved a grant for payment of fees of students in underprivileged areas, funds for Ehsaas ‘Koi Bhooka Na Soye’, a supplementary technical grant of Rs1.016 billion for the Controller General of Pakistan, technical supplementary grant of Rs378 million for the education department and another technical supplementary grant of Rs 330 million for Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP).