Imran effect: Pakistan on austerity drive
Pakistan’s new government has banned the discretionary use of state funds and firstclass air travel by officials and leaders, including the president and the prime minister, as part of its austerity drive.
The decisions were taken at a Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday, according to Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry.
“It has been decided that all the top government officials, including the president, prime minister, chief justice, senate chairman, speaker national assembly and the chief ministers will travel in club/business,” Chaudhry told the media. To a question, Chaudhry said that the army chief was not allowed first-class travel and always travelled business class. He said that the discretionary allocation of funds by the prime minister and the president and other officials had also been stopped by the Cabinet. Chaudhry claimed that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif used ~51 billion of the discretionary funds in a year.
The prime minister also decided to stop using a special plane for foreign visits or for domestic travel and instead fly business class.
After his victory in the July 25 general election, Khan had decided not to use the palatial Prime Minister House and has chosen to live in a small portion of it, which was previously the residence of the military secretary to the prime minister. Khan has also decided to use only two vehicles and has turned down elaborate official protocol.
The Cabinet took up a host of issues, including reverting to a six-day working week, but decided to continue the five-day working schedule after some ministers opposed the idea, which they felt might alienate government servants. The five-day working week was instituted in 2011 due to power shortage and to save fuel. The Cabinet was briefed that having a five-day week had not affected the performance or output by the civil servants. The Cabinet, however, changed the official office timings from 8 am-4 pm to 9 am-5 pm.
It was also decided that all the mega transport projects carried out in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the previous governments would be audited.