ISLAMABAD: An amount of Rs15 billion has been approved by the Finance Ministry for Operation Zarb-i-Azb being carried out against terrorists in North Waziristan tribal region.

Out of the approved amount, Rs8bn will be released to the Defence Ministry on Monday and the rest by the end of the current month, according to a spokesperson for the Finance Ministry.

He said that Defence Ministry had made a request for the amount to which the Finance Ministry had agreed so that the operation could move ahead successfully.

Also read: Zarb-i-Azb: Widen the operation

He said the ministry had also released an amount of Rs20 billion to the Water and Power Ministry regarding tariff subsidy for life-line consumers who used up to 50MW of electricity and for onward distribution to Pakistan State Oil and independent power producers to improve generation.

Water and Power Nargis Sethi had briefed a meeting of the Committee on Energy Resource Rationalisation on Friday about various issues being faced by the ministry.

The committee was set up by the prime minister to address various problems being faced by the Water and Power Ministry in collecting receivables from various sectors.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2014