Austerity Committee to reduce size of govt, notification issued

To meet the demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for future loans, the government has decided to reduce its size and expenditures.

According to the 24News HD TV channel, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has constituted a National Austerity Committee for the purpose, and the Finance Ministry on Friday issued a notification in this regard.

As per the notification, former chief secretary Nasir Mahmood Khosa has been appointed as the Convener of the committee while Minister of State for Finance Ishaq Dar will serve as Co-Convener in the committee.

The Austerity committee has sixteen other high-rank officials and authorities including chief secretaries of all four provinces and three economists—Zubair Khan, Farrukh Saleem, and Kaiser Bengal.

Furthermore, the committee may co-opt any person from the public or private sector, if deemed necessary for the purpose of its task.

As per the TORs of the Committee, it will reduce public expenditure and ensure fiscal discipline, take measures to economize government operations, and review and rationalize the size of the government to achieve optimal and smart organizational structures including a review of SOEs and corporations having redundant or overlapping functions.

The notification further said that the committee shall submit its recommendations within 15 days for consideration of the Prime Minister and the Finance Division will provide secretarial support to it.