Ministries empowered to get approval of agreements.

• Position: Brief article

The federal cabinet has allowed ministries to get approval of all international agreements through the circulation of summaries instead of bringing them up for discussion, which may exclude contracts like the $6-billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan deal from the cabinet's scrutiny.

International commercial contracts like the multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal that the PML-N government had signed with Qatar can now be disposed of through the circulation of summaries.

The federal cabinet took the decision in its second last meeting held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan on June 18, according to the Cabinet Division.

"In future, all cases involving memorandum of understanding (MoU), bilateral agreement of collaboration and international contract shall be disposed of by circulation," said the decision notified by the federal cabinet.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information Dr Firdous...