PM reconstitutes 25 member Economic Advisory Council.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has reconstituted a 25-member Economic Advisory Council (EAC)  including three former finance ministers — Shaukat Tarin, Dr Shamshad Akhtar and Dr Salman Shah.

The council would assist the government on economic issues. But the council has no representation of provinces.

Some prominent businessmen are also inducted in the restructured council.

The council will be headed by the Prime Minister himself.  Hence the reports that Mr Tareen will head the EAC have come to an end.

Shaukat Tareen, had been finance minister in the PPP-led federal government.

Three members from private sector were retained from the previous EAC — Abid Suleri, executive director, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Dr ljaz Nabi, professor of economics, Lahore University of Management Sciences, and Syed Salim Raza, former governor of State Bank of Pakistan.

However, some former members from private sector Arif Habib, Asif Qureshi, Farooq Rehmatullah, Mohammad Ali Tabba, Dr Rashid Amjad, Sultan Allana and Zaid Ali Mohammad were dropped due to reportedly their critical point of view about the government’s economic policies

Among 13 people from the private sector, including Arif Habib and Arif Sulehri, have been made members of the council.

The Economic Advisory Council was first constituted in August 2018.