ISLAMABAD, Oct 11: The government has constituted a high-powered advisory committee of the Planning Commission headed by Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal.

A notification said the advisory committee will include 26 members from the private sectors and 28 government officers by special invitations, mostly federal secretaries of all important ministries.

The constitution of the committee was approved by Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif.

The committee will work as a strategic think tank on policy issues of Planning Commission, guide the commission in policy formulation, reforms and its implementation in accordance with the vision of present government and in the national interest.

The committee will also help to generate and build consensus on policies and strategies of the planning commission, provide input and feedback from non-government stakeholders to the policies, performance of the planning commission.

The committee shall meet at least once in each quarter. The member of the committee will work without remuneration but can claims travel cost for meeting.

The members of the advisory committee include Senator Ch. Jaffar Iqbal, Senator Osman Saifullah, MNA Qaiser Ahmad Shaikh, MNA Miss Arifa Khalid Pervaiz, Executive Director SDPI Dr Abid Qayum Suleri, Dr Sania Nishtar, Sikandar Mustafa Khan, Usman Haider, Dr Navid Hamid, Salim Ghouri, Iftikhar Malik, Dr Faruuk Saleem, Dr Wasim Azher, Jehangir Bashar, Eng. Mohammad Asghar, Dr Sohail H. Naqvi, Dr Gulfraz Ahmed, Nasir Ali Shah Bukhari, Dr Imtiaz Rastgar, Dr Ishrat Hussain, Ismail Miftah, Sulman Najib Khan, Sultan Barq, Amin Jan and Lt. Gen. (retd) Sabahat Hussain.