A meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI), chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, on Friday decided to constitute National Task Force on Education Standards in the country.

The task force would look into the matters pertaining to curriculum, medium of instruction and other relevant issues. It would also make recommendations for bringing uniformity and improving quality of education across the country.

The meeting discussed matters pertaining to the Higher Education Commission and other similar bodies in the post 18th Constitutional Amendment scenario.

Over the issue of import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), the meeting decided the concerns of the provinces would be sent to the ministry concerned and the issue would be discussed in the next meeting of the CCI.

The meeting decided that all expenditures in connection with the provision of gas to localities falling within five kilometres radius of gas production fields would be borne by the distribution companies. Particularly in the case of Balochistan, it was decided that provision of gas to the nearest tehsil headquarters or district headquarter, as the case may be, would be ensured.

The issue of net hydel profit was also discussed during the meeting. The council was informed that the issue of the two provinces has already been amicably resolved during the meeting with the prime minister.

The Statistics Division gave a detailed presentation on the issue of third-party validation of the census results. It was decided that one per cent random sampling of the census data would be enhanced to five per cent and every effort would be made to complete the process within the shortest possible time.

Over the issue of export of surplus sugar, the meeting decided to recommend to the ECC to allow export of 1.5 MMT sugar during FY 2017-18. The meeting decided that existing subsidy level on the exports would continue.

The meeting also agreed to real-time monitoring of the electricity production, allocation to each DISCO and duration of load-shedding by the provinces. A similar mechanism would be made available for the gas sector.

On the issue of establishment of Fiscal Coordination Committee, the meeting decided that the existing committee constituted under NFC would be further mandated to ensure better coordination of the senior officials of finance divisions of the provinces and the federal government in matters relating to fiscal consolidation.

In order to resolve issues relating to EOBI and Workers Welfare Fund in post 18th Constitutional Amendment scenario, the CCI meeting decided to constitute a sub-committee comprising federal minister for overseas Pakistan and human resource development, special assistant to prime minister on law, special assistant to prime minister on revenue, provincial labour ministers, finance secretary, provincial labour secretaries and secretary ministry of overseas Pakistanis.

The meeting also approved a proposal by the ministry for energy to amend the Petroleum Exploration and Production Policy, 2012.

The CCI meeting also acceded to the request of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to grant one-time relaxation for the award of one new exploration block to each provincial holding companies (PHC) without competitive bidding.

National Water Policy was also presented for discussion at the meeting. It was decided that a committee comprising chairman planning commission, deputy chairman planning, secretaries planning, water, and energy divisions and provincial representatives would be constituted for detailed scrutiny and analysis of the proposed policy.