KARACHI:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked the Pakistani government to reduce costs and stop supplementing the costs of government-owned organisations and companies from the federal budget. Considering that the government recently passed a law to ensure equal salary and allowances to all government employees, it should use this law to reduce the high salaries and allowances, especially pension payments of government-owned companies and organisations such as Pakistan Railways, Pakistan Post, etc.
These independent organisations should be increasing their income and reduce their costs by operating efficiently. However, over the years, they have failed to maintain profitability and instead exceeded their budgets by raising the salaries and pensions of employees. They now supplement their budget from the federal budget to cover these high costs.
The public is not a beneficiary of these high salaries, pensions, and other perks including free fuel. Therefore, they should not have to bear the brunt of government mismanagement and inefficiencies. The government should revise its policies with regard to these companies. In addition, the IMF also urged the government to declare the assets of high-ranking officers and their families. To facilitate this process, guidelines will be established to allow law enforcement agencies to access these assets. The government should ensure that due process is completed for this, and it must establish a task force for preventing corruption and ensuring accountability.
Shahryar Khan Baseer
Peshawar
Published in The Express Tribune, February 10th, 2023.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
