ISLAMABAD, Nov 5: The federal cabinet has decided in principle to reinstate over 6,000 government employees who had been provided jobs by the Pakistan People’s Party government but were sacked after its dismissal in 1996.

Briefing the media on decisions taken at a cabinet meeting held on Wednesday, Information Minister Sherry Rehman said that the reinstated employees would get financial benefits with retrospective effect and their seniority would remain intact.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani presided over the meeting which decided that a committee headed by Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination Mian Raza Rabbani would study the financial impact of the decision and ensure its implementation this month. The committee includes ministers Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, Manzoor Wattoo, Naveed Qamar, Sherry Rehman, Rehmatullah Kakar and Abdul Razzak Thahim and Adviser to the PM on Finance Shaukat Tarin.

Mr Gilani asked the ministers to take immediate steps to implement the manifesto of the PPP-led coalition government.

When the information minister was asked about the financial impact of the recent expansion in cabinet, she said: “When 14 ministers were running all the ministries, the government was criticised for not working properly and now it is being castigated for expanding the cabinet.”

Ms Rehman rejected a perception that the resolution passed by the joint session of parliament was aimed at halting the military operation in tribal areas and said that it had endorsed deterrence against the acts of terrorism.

Relief for textile industry: The cabinet decided to provide relief in interest rate on loans to the spinning sector and research & development support to textile and garments industry, besides giving subsidy to the spinning mills at 3 per cent in mark-up for one year on outstanding running balances of principal amount of loans taken from 2003 to 2007.

The cabinet was informed that the National Disaster Management Authority had moved a huge stock of relief goods, including tents and blankets, from Karachi to Quetta for victims of earthquake in Balochistan.

It was also informed that the Cabinet Division’s emergency relief cell was also rendering assistance and goods in adequate quantities had already been supplied. The government will be sending another 30,000 tents and 100,000 blankets to the province. A tender has been floated and the goods would be dispatched soon.