The Council of Common Interests (CCI) on Monday approved a proposal to include 1,230 MW Haveli Bahadur Shah and 1,223 MW Balloki power projects in the active list of the privatisation programme for early implementation.

The CCI meeting, held in Islamabad with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair, emphasised upon the need for greater focus towards renewable energy in existing energy mix, Radio Pakistan reported.

In October, the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) had approved sell-off of the newly established 1,233-megawatt RLNG-based Balloki Power Plant and 1,230MW Haveli Bahadur Power Plant.

Last week, the Privatisation Commission had asked the National Power Parks Company (NPPC) to submit a working paper on its feasibility.

The Balloki and Haveli Bahadur plants would either be privatised as a bundle package or as separate entities, and the working paper to be prepared by the NPPC will identify timelines, justifications and issues ancillary to it for consideration of the Privatisation Commission board and the cabinet committee on privatisation.

Editorial: Opposition to privatisation

The participants of the meeting decided to further improve the ease of doing business in the country in order to attract investments and to promote industries so that it could truly benefit from the export potential.

The meeting also discussed the issue of rapid population growth of the country which currently stands at 207.8 million with a growth rate of 2.4% per annum.

It was decided to constitute national and provincial task forces, to be headed by the prime minister at the federal level and by the respective chief ministers at the provincial levels.