Cost-cutting steps: Punjab govt shuts down five companies

Recommendation given for freezing 1,132 posts until June 2012.

ISLAMABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has initiated drastic steps, including winding up five companies, besides abolishing more than 1,000 posts in various provincial departments to ensure optimum utilisation of human and financial resources.

Documents available with The Express Tribune show that the chief minister has approved recommendations of the cabinet committee, which met on February 2. The move follows the provincial government’s decision to lessen the burden on the national kitty.

The cabinet committee had recommended winding up five companies established in the agriculture department. The chief minister was informed that since these companies were non-functional, there was no financial liability against them. The five companies include research and development units for cotton, rice, mango, sugarcane and citrus.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif also endorsed the recommendations of the cabinet committee to wind up seven programme monitoring units (PMUs).

The documents further showed that the chief minister gave approval for abolishing 107 BS-16 and BS-17 posts in the local government and community development department.

Additionally, the chief minister approved the abolition of 80 BS-17 posts in the communication and works department.

Sharif is also said to have approved another recommendation of the cabinet committee which called for freezing 1,132 posts in development authorities until June next year. Documents show that this action will save Rs173.20 million annually.

The chief minister also approved the proposal to terminate four posts of advisers and consultants in his office as well as the posts of deputy secretary and section officer.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2011.