ISLAMABAD, Nov 18: The federal cabinet is expected to allow the ministries of commerce and foreign affairs to began negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with Iran, and to permit sale and transfer of the vehicles of the yellow cab scheme.

The federal cabinet, which meets here on Wednesday with Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali in the chair, would also be updated on the recent crackdown on the banned militant outfits.

According to a summary to the cabinet, the Ministry of Communications has proposed that the restriction of taking NOC before the sale or transfer of yellow cabs should be done away with.

The government had imported 137,000 vehicles under the 1991 yellow cab scheme. An SRO released by the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) had made it mandatory that an NOC from the Ministry of Communications would be necessary for the sale or transfer of these vehicles.

The communications ministry is of the view that most of these vehicles were in a bad shape now, and it was an unnecessary workload as well as a problem for the owners of these cars to seek NOCs before the change of registration.

The Ministry of Commerce has also sought a decision in principle from the federal cabinet to begin negotiations with Iran on the FTA.

The ministry has proposed that both sides could benefit a lot by signing a the agreement in view of fast approaching WTO regime. The ministry has said that both sides have already expressed their desire to sign the pact during discussions between the highest leadership of the two countries.

The meeting would also be given a presentation by the National Accountability Bureau chief on the National Anti-Corruption Strategy.

The meeting is also expected to fix wheat support price for 2003-04. The food ministry has proposed Rs365 per 40kg as support price for wheat from the existing level of Rs300, but the ministries of finance, industries and planning, and communications have opposed increase in support price by more than 10 per cent.