Billionaires dominate newly formed Pakistan Economic Advisory Council

Islamabad [Pakistan], April 29 : Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has picked up members of the country's billionaire club as members of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to change the economic direction and end protectionist policies, Express Tribune reported.
According to reports, the prime minister will chair the EAC, which is initially planned to meet every week.
Among the members are former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, former finance minister Saleem Mandviwalla, and Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, Minister of State for Finance Ayesha Ghous Pasha and Minister of State for Petroleum Mussadiq Malik.
Pakistani billionaires have been included in the EAC in huge numbers. Among prominent ones is one of the richest men, Mian Mohammad Mansha and his nephew Shahzad Salim. Mohammad Ali Tabba -the owner of the Lucky Cement, has also been made part of the new EAC. He also served in the Imran Khan's EAC.
Arif Habib, another billionaire industrialist has also been retained in Shehbaz Sharif's EAC.
Ijaz Nabi -- an economist, has secured the seat in the new EAC. Nabi had also remained part of the previous government's economic advisory bodies and was among those who supported reducing fuel prices, which eventually led to the derailment of the IMF programme.
The 22-member body having representation of the government and the private sector also has at least three members of former prime minister Imran Khan's Economic Advisory Council, according to a notification issued by the Ministry of Finance on Thursday, The Express Tribune reported.
Apart from reviewing the overall economic condition of the country, the economic advisory council reconstituted by Pak PM Shehbaz will advise on short-term macroeconomic stabilisation, and structural reforms for stable and sustained economic progress, media reports explained.
It will review the existing market imperfections in the various important sectors of the economy in order to promote competition by correcting the market distortions.
After the reformulation of the EAC, one of the biggest challenges for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will be to avoid conflict of interest of the EAC members while making policy decisions. The majority of the EAC members are those who have prospered in business due to the protectionist policies and the government's dole-outs in the shape of subsidies.
Interestingly, one of the terms of reference of the EAC will be to analyse the effectiveness of subsidies, protection and other financial support by the government to state-owned enterprises (SoEs) and other vital sectors of the economy in the context of overall cost and benefit analysis of such subsidies and protection.
Historically, the EAC has never remained an effective forum for serious policymaking and the platform is often used for forwarding personal agendas by the members.
While Pakistan's miserable economic condition is shrouded by the political upheaval in the country over the past few months, The new EAC needs to reverse this trend by putting it behind its personal business interests.