ISLAMABAD: The Council of Common Interests (CCI), while taking serious note of the critical issue of malnutrition and stunted growth among the children, on Wednesday unanimously agreed upon launching a development project titled ‘Tackling Malnutrition Induced Stunting in Pakistan’.
The project would come to a total cost of approximately Rs350 billion and span the duration of five years.
Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired the 43rd meeting of CCI, which was attended by the chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan.
It was agreed that 50 per cent of the cost would be provided by the federal government and equal distribution to be made by the provincial governments for five years, a press release issued by the PM Office’s media wing said.
The project would target 30 per cent of the country’s total population, including 15 million women of reproductive age and 3.9 million children under the age of two years through nutrition interventions.
It was agreed that the federal government would provide nutrition supplementary commodities, improve the capacity of new and existing healthcare workers, as research and development, while the provinces would contribute towards implementation through the involvement of existing Lady Health Workers, Community Health Workers, and undertake targeted population identification, programme management, institutional arrangement, evaluation and data sharing.
The CCI considered the request of KP government for one-time permission to swap the arrangement of one exploration block with another prospective block within the province.
It allowed the one-time approval for the swap with the condition that commitments accruing out of the previous award of the block should be completed and the Petroleum Division should incorporate a time limit for such swap so that future requests were catered for.
The CCI also reviewed the implementation status of previous decisions.
Keeping in view the importance of developing a consensus on the energy issues, it was decided that the next meeting of CCI would be called in January next year to finalise issues related to the costs of electricity, gas & fuel, and to resolve water-related matters.
The prime minister emphasized that the energy issues carried a national impact and it was necessary that a consensus was developed among the provinces where a win-win result was achieved for the benefit of the people of Pakistan.
