ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday reconstituted the 18-member Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to review the prevailing economic conditions and propose stabilisation measures and corrective actions within the available resources.

This replaces an earlier 22-member EAC the PM had constituted on April 29 that also included members from the coalition partners and some leading businessmen who have come under higher corporate taxes in the latest budget update and were critical of taxation measures.

The coalition partners and business tycoons have now been axed.

The new body mostly comprise PML-N cabinet members and private sector members. The EAC is now led by former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi instead of PM Sharif. Other members of the cabinet include Ahsan Iqbal, Dr Miftah Ismail, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Dr Aysha Ghaus Pasha and Dr Musadik Malik.

Other members mostly from IBA and LUMS include Dr Akbar Zaidi, Dr Nadeem Javed, Dr Samina Khalil, Dr Masood Ahmed, Dr Ijaz Nabi, Dr Hafeez Pasha, Dr Ali Cheema, Dr Syed Mohammad Hassan Shah, Dr Akhtar Hussain Shah, Dr S. Manzoor Ahmad, Khurram Hussain and Sakib Sherani.

Only three members of the previous EAC under the PTI government remain, including Arif Habib, Mohammad Ali Tabba, and Dr Ijaz Nabi. They are no more in the advisory body. All members of PML-N have been retained in the new body.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2022