Fact Check: Is Shehbaz govt’s austerity drive first of its kind?

ISLAMABAD: An austerity committee formed on the directives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has submitted a set of proposals to save the taxpayers’ money. Is it the first of its kind? The answer is no. Prime Minister Imran Khan too had formed a committee under the chair of Dr Ishrat Hussain who also submitted its recommendations.

In recent years, every government forms an austerity committee to curtail the expenditure and save taxpayers’ money but their recommendations are hardly implemented. The new government ignores the recommendations of the previous government’s austerity drives and eventually dumps the recommendations of its own committee. This is what has been observed over the last few years.

Prime Minister Shehbaz’s government formed an austerity committee that has submitted its set of proposals. The committee has proposed a massive cut in the perks, privileges and other luxuries enjoyed by the ruling elite, parliamentarians, judges, generals, civil and military officers from taxpayers’ money.

According to Editor Investigation The News Ansar Abbasi’s report, “Some highlights of these proposals include major cut in the size of cabinet, no development funds for MPs; no pension beyond Rs500,000 per month to anyone from public kitty; no use of SUVs by government officials; withdrawal of all perks of retired civil servants, judicial officers of superior courts and of

uniformed services viz vehicles, security, support staff and utilities; 15 percent cut in the salary and allowances of all MNAs, MPAs and Senators; 15 percent cut in the current budget of all ministries, divisions, departments etc at federal and provincial levels; only one plot be allowed to all government servants, bureaucrats, judges and armed forces’ officers; more than one plot already allotted as well as additional land allotments be cancelled and put to open auction; no new greenfield project except in special industrial zones under CPEC; ban on recruitment; scaling down of security protocols for all.”

If implemented, this will no doubt help saving taxpayers’ money. However, the previous government had also received a detailed report on saving public money by introducing austerity measures and institutional reforms.

Former adviser to Prime Minister on Institutional Reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain while talking to The News said he had presented two volumes of progress report on institutional reforms to the federal cabinet in July 2021.

As per Dr Ishrat Hussain’s report, the federal government entities were reduced from 441 to 307. According to this report, 206 autonomous bodies, 91 executive departments and 10 constitutional bodies have been notified whereas summaries are to be submitted by the Cabinet Division. Moreover, rules of business have been amended to incorporate new definitions of autonomous bodies and executive departments. In addition to this, the SRO clarifying the powers and functions has also been issued.

The report further claimed that appointments of CEOs/MDs of public sector organisations have been conducted through an open and merit-based competitive process and 62 CEOs, including some overseas Pakistanis, were appointed through this process.

About e-governance, the report claimed that ministries were using a new version of e-office whereas the electronic submission of summaries for the prime minister, cabinet and committees was under process. For this purpose, hardware has been installed whereas the officials training has also been completed.

The report had also recommended attracting new talent from the private sector. For this purpose, the report claimed that it had introduced a new MP scales policy, which was already notified.

According to this process, the recruitment process has been broadened and in addition to advertisements, head hunting firms can identify suitable candidates for short-listing and interviews. Under this policy, civil servants are allowed one MP/SPPS post in their entire career, through open competition.

Under the reforms section, the report carried recommendations for major loss-making entities, including Pakistan Railways, Pakistan International Airlines and Pakistan Steel Mills. For Pakistan Railways, the restructuring plan of the report suggests to make the loss-making body efficient by converting its divisions into four companies i.e. (a) Infrastructure company wholly owned by the government, (b) Freight company to be operated by the private sector (c) Passenger company to be operated by the private sector (d) ML-1 Authority for implementing the $6 billion CPEC project. The report further says that a Railway Regulatory Agency independent of the Railway Board would be formed. Apart from the above mentioned recommendations, the report has detailed proposals for the loss making entities.

Dr Ishrat informed The News that former prime minister Imran Khan government implemented several recommendations and then he got busy in the no-confidence move. Every new setup ignores the previous government’s measures and introduces its own set of proposals for the same purpose, he said.