ISLAMABAD: Although the austerity drive in general is unclear, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has handed over Rs 144 million from its current fiscal year budget to the finance ministry.
IHC was allocated a budget of Rs 1.1 billion for the current financial year. On May 30, IHC handed over Rs 144 million to the Finance Ministry. After handing over the said amount, the revised budget of IHC is Rs 966 million.
Recently, the Chief Justice (CJ) of the IHC directed the authorities concerned to cut the budget and transfer the savings to the public purse in the public interest and as a national objective. The Chief Justice of the IHC also ordered that no honorarium shall be paid to any employee. In June last year too, the IHC had handed over 30 percent of the total budget allocated for the financial year 2021-22 to the public.
In February this year, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced austerity measures that included budget cuts for all government agencies, withdrawal of certain perks and privileges for cabinet members, MPs and civil servants, including luxury vehicles and security. /protocol included. The Prime Minister also appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) and the judiciary to contribute to the national austerity drive by reducing expenditure on the judiciary, judges (both present and retired), court officials and employees. He expected the judiciary to limit the maximum pension of retired judges to Rs 500,000 per month and also review the perks and privileges of judges.
The Ministry of Finance and Defense are in touch to finalize their recommendations regarding cuts in the non-combat defense budget, but no announcement has yet been made as to how much the defense budget has been cut.
Similarly, there is no indication from the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the High Courts (with the exception of the IHC) as to how much they saved from their budgets to contribute to the national austerity drive. Interestingly, no update has been shared with this correspondent by the Prime Minister’s Office or the Finance Ministry on the implementation of the austerity measures announced by the Prime Minister.
The prime minister did not reduce the size of his 85-member cabinet to 30 as recommended by the National Austerity Committee, but his cabinet members announced that they would not draw any salary or perquisites from the public exchequer.
