Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, on Saturday, directed that relevant secretaries would personally ensure the implementation and monitoring of the government’s announced austerity and simplicity measures and submit daily reports to the review committee.
The prime minister chaired a meeting to review the impact on petroleum product prices due to the current regional situation and the implementation of government’s austerity measures.
During the meeting, policy measures aimed at stabilizing petroleum product prices and the progress and effects of the government’s cost-saving initiatives were discussed.
The meeting was informed that the amount saved through government’s austerity measures would be utilized to provide relief to the public under the prevailing situation, emphasizing that all these savings generated through the austerity measures would solely go for public relief, PM Office Media Wing said in a press release.
It was decided in the meeting that, similar to the government employees’ mechanism, salaries of the employees of state-owned enterprises and autonomous institutions working under government patronage would be deducted in stages from 5 to 30 percent, and the saved amount would be used for the provision of public relief.
The meeting also decided that in corporations and other institutions where government representatives sit on boards, they would not receive board meeting fees and the amounts would be added to the savings pool.
The meeting was attended by Ministers Attaullah Tarar, Muhammad Aurangzeb, Ali Pervaiz Malik, Minister of State Bilal Azhar Kayani, Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue and other senior officials.
The prime minister further directed all Pakistani embassies around the globe to celebrate Pakistan Day (23 March) with simplicity.
It was also decided that the four-day workweek would not apply to law-enforcement agencies or the Federal Board of Revenue, and they would continue to perform their duties according to the existing schedule.
For the next two months, a 50 percent reduction would be made in the fuel allocated to official vehicles of all departments, whereas a decision to ground 60 percent of the official vehicles would be subject to a third-party audit. The meeting was also briefed on the complete ban on purchase of new government vehicles and the suspension of all other government procurements.
The meeting was informed that for the next two months, the salaries of cabinet members, ministers, advisers, and special assistants would also be utilized for the public welfare.
While a complete ban on foreign visits by ministers, advisers, and special assistants would remain in place, with teleconferencing and online meetings being preferred instead, it was added.
The prime minister directed that the ban on foreign visits of the government officers, federal ministers, ministers of state and special assistants would remain in force.