Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Information Firdous Ashiq Awan on Tuesday said that a bill that seeks to enforce women's rights to property will be introduced by the government to help ensure women get their due share in inheritance.

Awan was addressing a news conference along with Minister of Water Resources Faisal Vawda after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

She said that the government wanted to provide women with their fair share in inheritance and ensure that they are not cheated out of their rights.

Citing other discussions from the cabinet meeting, she said amendments in the code of civil procedure will help decide the civil cases swiftly. Similarly, the succession certificates will now be issued by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and heirs would be able to procure them within two weeks, instead of going through courts for years.

Awan said that a new whistleblower protection bill will be introduced to provide protection to whistleblowers when they reveal information regarding corruption. She said it will be based on incentives and the people informing the government of illegal monetary activities committed by anyone would be awarded a percentage of the amount recovered.

She also revealed that the cabinet was taken into confidence regarding the proposed local government system in Punjab that will be modelled like the one already implemented successfully in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The new local government system will devolve the powers at the grass-root level and empower local people, SAPM Awan added.

She said an anti-corporal punishment bill will also be tabled soon in the parliament to discourage physical punishment and abuse at schools, as will a bill named 'Zainab Alert' to stop child sexual abuse.

According to the SAPM, a special committee has been assigned the responsibility of preparing a Ramazan package to provide relief to the masses. The committee will also make sure that no load-shedding is carried out during the holy month.

Awan said the cabinet also discussed the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority's (Ogra) recommendation to increase the prices of petroleum products by Rs14 per litre. The prime minister decided that the recommendation will be forwarded to the Economic Coordination Committee for review "in order to pass minimum burden to the people", Radio Pakistan reported.

The cabinet also decided to hold an audit of the Rs1,300 billion circular debt in order to determine who is responsible for the exponential increase in its value. The facts from the audit will be presented in the next cabinet meeting, Awan added.