Dar Pushes Austerity, Cut in Avoidable SpendingPakistan

The committee took stock of ongoing implementation and follow-up on earlier decisions, focusing on expenditure management and conservation of resources across ministries and divisions.

Dar said the government’s austerity measures could only deliver real savings if every institution played its part, and he urged all concerned departments to keep working together so that the drive for economy and conservation did not lose momentum.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Tariq Bajwa, the secretaries of the cabinet, law and justice, information and broadcasting, and federal education and professional training, along with senior representatives from all provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Officials at the meeting reviewed how the austerity measures were being put into practice across government departments, and discussed the steps needed to keep expenditure under control while making better use of available resources.

The committee’s work forms part of the government’s wider effort to cut unnecessary spending and improve efficiency in public administration, with the aim of converting short-term conservation measures into permanent savings for the national exchequer.

Dar stressed that the responsibility for making the austerity drive work did not rest with any single ministry, and that lasting results would depend on every institution carrying out its part and on steady coordination between the federal government, the provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The meeting also underlined the need for ministries and divisions to keep a close watch on their own expenditure and to use resources carefully, so that the savings achieved through conservation measures are protected and built upon in the months ahead.