Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has approved the new procedure as a special case in a high-level meeting. The new procedure will be applicable from January 1.
Planning Commission deputy chairman Dr Akram Shaikh, who presented the new draft for PC-1 procedure during the meeting, told Business Recorder here on Thursday that after the formal presentations and threadbare discussions in more than one meeting both President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had endorsed the changes in the procedure of PC-1 approval.
He said the changes were of procedural nature which will bar government departments from seeking irrelevant or less important information for any project, adding the new procedure will give top priority to grant approval of PC-1 of the projects within stipulated timeframe.
Dr Akram Shaikh said: "The new procedure will help in cutting down red-tape in approval of PC-1 and subsequently, bring efficiency in the system. The prevailing system takes many months and in some cases many years becoming a major hurdle in securing public and private sector investment."
He said the President, taking serious notice of inordinate delays in approval of PC-1, had directed the Planning Commission to make changes in the existing cumbersome procedure, making it simple and easy to ensure that the time and money do not go to waste.
The PC deputy chairman said that the government was also mulling over drastic changes in the land acquisition laws to make them easy and less time consuming for those intending to invest in Pakistan. He said that the land acquisition laws also do not get fit in the changing environment as the government is making all-out efforts to attract foreign investment.
The government has already directed the provincial governments and the departments under its authority such as Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Pakistan Railways to give details of unutilised land, Dr Akram Shaikh added.
He said these efforts, to simplify the procedure for PC-1 and changes in land acquisition laws, are part of the composite strategy launched by the President Musharraf and their prime purpose is to remove hurdles in attracting investment and encourage investors to prefer Pakistan for the purpose.