Austerity measures

Austerity became a buzzword soon after this government came to power last year. But talk aside, little was done on the ground to minimise expenses. Indeed, the opposite was in evidence as the administration became more bloated for reasons of political expediency. Nor was any visible effort made to trim the fat where foreign tours were concerned.
 
The president and the prime minister visited several countries accompanied by delegations whose size could not be justified on any grounds save those of appeasement. Ministers and provincial heads — the Sindh CM was a welcome exception — continued to move around with unnecessarily large escorts that served no purpose other than to massage the egos of our VVIPS. At the same time, government officials kept flying across the country to physically attend meetings which, as this paper suggested long ago, could easily be replaced by videoconferencing. The list of wasteful expenditure doesn’t end there but is much too long to be spelled out in this space.

Such official profligacy is nothing new in Pakistan. But what made it particularly distasteful was that it came at a time of severe economic stress when the country was looking to the IMF for survival and the ranks of Pakistan’s newly poor were swelling. Finally, however, the government appears to be moving in the right direction and it is hoped that the austerity measures approved by the federal cabinet on Wednesday will be implemented in letter and spirit.

Slashing the number of ministries and divisions is the order of the day, as is cutting down on other expenses that have more to do with pomp and splendour than official business. Pakistan needs every rupee it can save. Also, as the finance minister pointed out the other day, the centre will be hard pressed to meet its NFC award commitments until federal expenditure is curtailed. Economics aside, there is a human element to the story. The government needs to show that it is alive to the misery of the people and is taking steps to alleviate their condition. One small step towards this goal is to refrain from frivolity in these grave times.