Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Tuesday announced that the federal government has decided to cut the number of affiliated agencies by half while eliminating 150,000 jobs as part of a sweeping cost-cutting and efficiency drive. The minister said the initiative was launched by a committee formed under Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in mid-2024.
Amid the ongoing financial crisis in Pakistan, the federal government has decided to eliminate 60 percent of the vacant posts to reduce expenses. With this, 1.5 lakh government jobs will be lost in Pakistan in one stroke. Pakistan is also planning to transfer some hospitals to the provincial administrations.
The government took the decision to reduce expenditure
PTI quoted Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb as saying that the federal government has decided to cut the number of affiliated agencies by half while eliminating 150,000 jobs. Aurangzeb said that 80 departments have been consolidated into 40. The government has taken extensive cost-cutting measures to reduce expenditure and improve performance.
The expenditure of these departments is very high
The minister further said that this initiative was started by a committee formed under Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in mid-2024. The committee was to investigate 43 ministries and their subordinate agencies. He said that the annual expenditure of the federal government on these departments was Rs 900 billion. Pakistan is also planning to transfer some hospitals to the provincial administrations.
He said the six ministries that the government had initially chosen for right-sizing include Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, States and Frontier Regions, IT and Telecommunication, Industries and Breeding, National Health Services and Capital Development Authority.
These departments will be abolished
He said the ministries of Kashmir Affairs, Gilgit-Baltistan and States and Frontier Regions were being merged and the Capital Development Authority was being abolished. According to the minister, in the second phase, out of 60 subordinate institutions of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Commerce Division, Housing and Construction and National Food Security Research, 25 institutions would be abolished, 20 would be downsized and nine merged.
More ministries to be merged in the third phase
In the second phase, we took four ministries and after that five more ministries will be taken. Those chosen for the third phase included the Ministry of Federal Education and Vocational Training, Information and Broadcasting, Power Division, Finance Division and National Heritage and Culture.
