PM forms council for war response

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has constituted a National Coordination and Management Council (NCMC) to deal with the aftermath of the Middle East war on the nation's economy and its internal security, in a move that will also ensure faster decision making during uncertain times. The council was established hours before Pakistan brokered a ceasefire. But in a maiden meeting of its executive committee, which was held on Wednesday, the council decided that it would continue working as the danger of war still looms. It may take many weeks before the economy returns to normal functioning even if the ceasefire is turned into a permanent peace agreement. The Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Khan Cheema and Lt General Zafar Iqbal are made the co-chairmen of the executive committee of the council, which has the representation of all the federal departments, provincial governments and the special areas. In a maiden meeting of the executive committee, the council allowed export of surplus furnace oil after fully taking into account the local energy production requirements. At least two refineries raised the issue of limited storage capacity, requiring the export of the surplus volumes. According to the notification, the prime minister has constituted the NCMC as a central platform, comprising representation from all federal and provincial stakeholders, to facilitate informed policy decision-making and ensure effective implementation at all levels in response to the economic challenges arising from the Gulf conflict. The council has been given the mandate for the management of internal security including possible internal displacement and refugees because of any untoward situation. It has also been tasked for narrative management and controlling of disinformation. The council is responsible for the management and operationalization of financial, economic, and trade-related policy measures. The government sources said that during the last two days the civil-military authorities rushed to make plans to secure energy supplies in case the United States executed its threat to attack the energy infrastructure and Iran retaliated with attacks on Middle East energy infrastructure. Pakistan looked into the options to import fuels from Russia, Nigeria and some other countries. In addition to the cost, the major issue was the voyage time of cargoes, which could have jumped to 30 to 35 days for a tanker due to any closure of the supplies routes, said the officials. The officials said that there were around five different committees that had been constituted during the past one month of the war. These committees at one hand helped to deal with issues arising in their respective domains but on the other hand fragmented the decision making. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb chaired the committee on monitoring and securing the fuel supplies and did a splendid job in making sure that there were no shortages across the country. However, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar chaired another committee, which was responsible for finalizing a plan to give targeted subsidies. The Ministry of Information Technology was separately looking into the issue of disbursement of these subsidies while a Maritime Affairs committee was dealing with the logistics issues. Another committee was working to address issues that could hamper Pakistan's exports because of war. The officials said that all these committees are being dissolved and now these decisions would take place at the forum of the National Coordination and Management Council. According to the terms of reference, the council would monitor macro-economic and commodity indicators and make sure that the foreign exchange reserves remain stable and there is no sporadic movement in the value of the rupee against the US currency. The oil and commodity management would be ensured through digitalized national dashboards and decisions would be taken to address any bottlenecks in supplies. Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves remained largely stable during war time but the country is now set to repay $4.8 billion debt this month. Foreign remittances, which remain the key source of reserves' stability, decreased 5% in March despite the Eid factor, due to uncertainties in the Middle East markets. The central bank reported that workers' remittances were recorded at $3.8 billion, down by 5% over the same month of the last year. But these increased by 16.5% on a monthly basis compared to $3.2 billion receipts in February. Cumulatively, workers' remittances increased by 8.2% to $30.3 billion during July-March period, compared to $28billion received during the same period last year. Remittances during March 2026 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia, $918.4 million, the United Arab Emirates $824 million and the United Kingdom $587.3 million. The officials said that the newly established council would ensure real-time scenario modeling, analytics for oil shocks, remittance disruption, freight cost spikes and availability of critical commodities. According to its other mandate, the council would look for trade diversification by identifying prospective export markets, alternate import sources, import conditions, utilization of port infrastructure and merchant shipping. The council will work for energy security by maintaining strategic fuel reserves, price adjustment, fast track alternate procurements and supplementary grants for specific emergency expenditures, It would take over the responsibility of expenditure rationalization and monitor austerity and energy conservation measures. In case of any extreme situation, the council has been mandated to implement rationing of critical commodities. The council would identify vulnerabilities of social communities for targeted subsidies and social safety nets.