ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The federal cabinet on Monday decided to lift ban on recruitment in government departments and provide a cash grant of Rs 25,000 per family to the flood affected people before Eid-ul-Azha.
The decision was made in a meeting of the federal cabinet which was held in Islamabad on Monday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
In a press conference after the meeting, the federal information minister Pervez Rasheed said that the cabinet also approved a mechanism for adjustment of inflated electricity bills for last month.
The meeting decided to give legal cover to the minimum wage of Rs 12,000 per month, he said.
The information minister said that recruitment against vacancies in government departments would be made purely on merit in a highly transparent manner. For this purpose, the prime minister has constituted a cabinet committee to oversee the entire process.
The minister emphatically stated that there would be no recommendation (Sifarish) and recruitments would be done on merit irrespective of political affiliations. He said that a transparent process of recruitment of hundreds of thousands of educators was adopted by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government in Punjab and the same transparency would be introduced at the centre.
Rasheed said that the federal and provincial governments would share fifty percent cost of cash grant of Rs 25,000 to the flood affected people. He said that besides this, the federal government would also compensate for the losses of crops and assist in reconstruction of partially or fully damaged houses as well as loss of cattle heads.
The minister said that the prime minister had assigned advisor to the ministry of water and power Dr Musaddaq the responsibility to probe complaints of excessive electricity billing last month. The advisor presented his report in the cabinet today.
The cabinet decided that excess charges of consumers of up to 200 units who received more bills as compared to same month last year would be adjusted in the next bill, the minister said.
The information minister further said that overbilling of consumers of over 200 units would also be adjusted after verification if there is five percent increase in their bills for the month as compared to same month last year.
