Rs410 million approved to deal with PTI march

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Monday approved an initial budget of over Rs410 million to deal with the participants of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) long march with an iron hand and also backed the decision to provide cheap electricity to exporters. Chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, a meeting of the ECC deferred a summary for fixing the wheat support price and instead agreed to first make an effort to convince Sindh to review its decision of setting the support price at Rs4,000 per 40 kilogrammes. The ECC took up two separate summaries moved by the Interior Ministry to seek budget for dealing with the PTI’s long march. “The ECC approved a supplementary grant of Rs410.2 million in favour of the Ministry of Interior for expenses relating to law and order”, according to the Finance Ministry. The Rs410.2 million was the estimated cost of preparations to deal with the protestors, including the deployment of a 30,000 strong force, their meal, transportation, anti-riot gear and surveillance of the protestors.