Prime Minister Imran Khan approved the establishment of 10 special economic zones (SEZs) in the four provinces of the country.
Five of the 10 SEZs will be established in Punjab (Bhalwal, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Vehari and Allama Iqbal SEZ), two each in Sindh (Naushahro Feroze and Bhulari) and Balochistan (Bostan and Hub) and one in Khyber Pahtunkhwa (Rashakai).
The prime minister who presided over a meeting of the board of approval for the SEZs, Prime Minister Khan said the purpose of setting up special economic zones was to provide facilities and incentives to the business community.
He said the government was committed to providing ease of doing business and a favorable environment to the business community to generate economic activity in the country.
The government has notified 13 SEZs so far while work on setting up 12 more in the public sector and six in the private sector was in progress.
The meeting was told that after approval of law for the SEZs in 2012, only seven special economic zones were set up in the country till 2018, while the incumbent government had notified six new zones in a single year (2019).
The meeting was briefed about the industries to be set up in the new special economic zones. The meeting decided that all matters about the SEZs` establishment would be resolved in consultation with the provincial governments.
The meeting also decided to provide facilities of electricity and wheeling of power transmission to power generation industries in the special economic zones.
The prime minister directed the authorities concerned to set up a working group comprising the ministers for planning and energy, the commerce adviser and others for the establishment of the SEZs, and making the required laws and regulations easier to provide facilities to the investors and businessmen.
The working group will submit its recommendations about the special economic zones to the prime minister.
Minister for Planning Asad Umar told the meeting that work was in progress to formulate an economic growth strategy regarding Gilgit-Baltistan, which also included the progress of the industrial sector.
The prime minister stressed the need for utilizing the tourism potential of Gilgit-Baltistan and the establishment of special economic zones there

UN economists have warned that the deadly coronavirus epidemic could cost the global economy $1.0 trillion this year and called on governments to ramp up spending to mitigate its impact. A new report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), a Geneva-based UN agency, concluded that the spread of COVID-19 will push some countries into recession and will significantly slow growth in the world economy as a whole.
“We envisage a slowdown in the global economy to under two percent for this year, and that will probably cost in the order of $1 trillion, compared with what people were forecasting back in September,” Richard Kozul-Wright, Director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies at UNCTAD, said.
Launching the UNCTAD report as world financial markets tumbled over concerns about supply-chain interruptions from China, and oil price uncertainty among major producers, Kozul-Wright warned that few countries were likely to be left unscathed by the outbreak’s financial ramifications. One “Doomsday scenario” in which the world economy grew at only 0.5 percent, would involve “a $2 trillion hit” to the gross domestic product, he said, adding that collapsing oil prices had been “a contributing factor to that growing sense of unease and panic”. While it was difficult to predict how the international financial markets will react to COVID-19’s impacts “what they do suggest is a world that is extremely anxious”, he said. “There’s a degree of anxiety now that’s well beyond the health scares which are very serious and concerning.” To counter these fears, “Governments need to spend at this point to prevent the kind of meltdown that could be even more damaging than the one that is likely to take place over the year”, Kozul-Wright insisted.
Asked about how different countries might react to the crisis including China – where the virus first emerged in December – and the United States, the senior UN economist said that the Chinese Government would likely introduce significant “expansionary measures” – shorthand for increasing spending or tax cuts. “It will almost certainly do that,” he said. “Will the US Government in an election year, which is where we also need to respond in a way other than simply cutting taxes and reducing interest rates? I suspect it will do.”
Turning to Europe and the Eurozone, Kozul-Wright noted that its economy had already been performing “extremely badly towards the end of 2019”. It was “almost certain to go into recession over the coming months, and the Germany economy is particularly fragile, but the Italian economy and other parts of the European periphery are also facing very serious stresses right now as a consequence of trends over (the last few) days.”
Describing many parts of the Latin American region as similarly vulnerable, he added that Argentina in particular “will be struggling as a consequence of the knock-on effects of this crisis”. So-called Least Developed Countries, whose economies are driven by the sale of raw materials, will not be spared either. “Heavily-indebted developing countries, particularly commodity exporters, face a particular threat”, thanks to weaker export returns linked to a stronger US dollar, Kozul-Wright maintained. “The likelihood of a stronger dollar as investors seek safe-havens for their money, and the almost certain rise in commodity prices as the global economy slows down, means that commodity exporters are particularly vulnerable.”
“Ultimately,” Kozul-Wright added, “a series of dedicated policy responses and institutional reforms are needed to prevent a localized health scare in a food market in Central China from turning into a global economic meltdown”. Although the threat of COVID-19 becoming an official pandemic “has become very real”, the world is “not at the mercy of the virus”, said the World Health Organization (WHO) head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, briefing journalists in Geneva on Monday. He said it was important not to let grim milestones such as passing the infection rate of 100,000 worldwide, sap resolve to contain the disease, stressing that 93 percent of deaths so far have been in just four countries.
It would be “the first pandemic in history that could be controlled. The bottom line is, we are not at the mercy of the virus”, he added

Islamabad has devised a new strategy for the release of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) funds in the last quarter.
Now, as the new strategy suggests no formal fund would be released after May 15, 2020.
The Ministry of Finance has also issued a notification which states that no funds would be released for new service or new items of expenditure during the 4th quarter of the fiscal year.
The PSDP funds up to the 3rd quarter of the current financial year were authorized by the Planning and Development Division and were released by Principal Accounting Officers (PAOs) without referring the same to the Finance Division for ways and means clearance.
However, fund releases for the 4th quarter of the fiscal year 2019-2020 will require clearance by the Budget Wing and endorsement by the Expenditure/Development Wing.
The PSDP funds up to the 3rd quarter of the current financial year were authorized by the Planning and Development Division and were released by PAOs without referring the same to Finance Division for clearance.
The move is aimed at ensuring speedy and effective development in the public sector. Thus, releases for the 4th Quarter of FY 2019-20 shall require clearance by Budget Wing and an endorsement by Expenditure/Development Wing. The Expenditure/Development wing of Finance Division will closely monitor and analyze the funds requirement of various Divisions/Departments and Organisations keeping in view the spending trends and needs.
After a scrutiny process, cases will be forwarded along with recommendations to Budget Wing for clearance.

The Sindh government has come crystal that no cabinet body is authorized to decide on the gas distribution among the provinces. Only the Council of Common Interest is an appropriate forum to decide the issue, it says.
Sindh Energy Minister who briefed the Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum said neither the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet nor the Cabinet Committee on Energy was authorized to make decisions regarding gas distribution among the provinces reiterating Sindh’s stand that CCI was the only appropriate forum for such decisions.
Sindh is producing 2500 mmcfd to 2600 mmcfd of natural gas and in return getting only 900 mmcfd to 1000 mmcfd against the demand of 1500 mmcfd to 1750 mmcfd.
The Senate Standing Committees on Petroleum which took Sindh’s case as regards the gas distribution as Sindh has complaints that Article 158 of the constitution relating to the oil and gas sector is being violated.
Federal Minister for Petroleum, Omer Ayub requested the committee to defer the agenda item related to gas distribution among the provinces as Special Advisor to Prime Minister, Nadeem Babar will visit Sindh to discuss this issue. He said the government wanted to resolve the issue with mutual understanding.
Interestingly enough secretary Energy Sindh said the issue of gas distribution was not on the agenda of SAPM. However, Secretary Petroleum Division, Asad Hayauddin insisted it was on the agenda of the meeting.
The CCI has given direction regarding the gas distribution among the provinces. The council has directed to give preference to the domestic consumers of all the provinces.
Secretary Energy Sindh Mussadiq Khan Tahirkhaili said article 158 of the constitution has clearly stated that the province from where the gas is being extracted will have the first right on gas usages.
The committee was informed that the gas shortage was discussed by CCI in detail and had constituted a committee to probe the matter. The report of the CCI committee is awaited, it was informed.
Situation in Balochistan
THE winter season has almost drawn to a close but some parts of the provincial capital are still facing a shortage of natural gas.
Many areas in the center of the city do without gas for several hours each day. The situation is worse on the outskirts of the city, even though the Sui Southern Gas Company says theres no longer a shortage. The people of Killi Qambrani, a suburban area to the south of Quetta, have had to contend with the problem right from the start of the season and are still doing so. In January, Quetta was blanketed with snow, which turned the weather frosty. With the fall of snow, the supply of gas to the residents was almost discontinued. Balochistan was the first province in the country where gas was first discovered. Gas reserves were found back in 1952 in the Sul town of Dera Bugti district. Unfortunately, Quetta was provided gas not until 1985, which speaks volumes about the injustices faced by the province. Today, only five districts out of Balochistans 34 districts are connected to the national grid.
This winter was a particularly harsh one, particularly for the province`s nine districts.
Because it snowed frequently many people lost their lives and many others were marooned in the snow. Also, many heads of cattle died due to the harsh weather. All the nine MPAs from Quetta, along with their colleagues in the Balochistan Assembly, mounted protests against the unabated gas load shedding in the city