Federal cabinet approves final Reko Diq accord
The federal cabinet on Tuesday approved the final agreement for the Reko Diq deal and created a five-member committee to iron out some legal issues to ensure its smooth implementation.
However, the deal has come at the cost of causing discontent among some allies who walked out of the meeting, complaining that they were not taken into confidence over the agreement.
During Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, members were given a detailed briefing on the new Reko Diq deal which needs to be signed and that the recent legislation done in this regard was specific to Reko Diq.
Members were informed that an opinion was sought from the Supreme Court in a reference filed by President Arif Alvi on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
During the briefing, some members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) and Balochistan National Party – Mengal group (BNP-M) protested against the project. They maintained they were not taken on board for the decisions taken on the matter.
They said that they would attend further cabinet meetings once their amendments were made.
They then walked out of the cabinet meeting.
Government ministers attempted to pacify the disgruntled cabinet members. They assured them that their concerns would be addressed, but the disgruntled members walked out.
A five-member cabinet committee was also created to iron out some legal complications in implementing the deal.
Moreover, the committee will take disgruntled allies on board and address their concerns over the project.
