Economist Kaiser Bengali quits govt committees

Irked by government policies, Dr Kaiser Bengali, a member of three government committees, has stepped down from all positions.

Citing his reason for quitting the government committees, the economist said the government did not seem serious in reducing its expenditures.

The committees whose membership Kaiser Bengali has quit include the Austerity Committee, the Right Sizing Committee and the Government Expenditure Committee. He has sent his resignation to Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and Cabinet Secretary Kamran Afzal.

The economist said the committees in question had recommended that the government abolish 17 divisions and 50 departments but the government had failed to sincerely implement the recommendations, adding that the government was instead taking measures in contravention of the suggestions.

Kaiser Bengali pointed out that the government was retrenching low cadre employees in order to reduce its expenditures and protecting the jobs of Grade 17 to 22 officers.

He highlighted that as much as Rs30 billion could be saved by removing officer positions from departments. But he said the government was instead abolishing jobs of employees in Grades 1 to 16, a move that was pushing the economy further towards destruction. The country was currently on the ventilator in terms of its economy, remarked Kaiser Bengali.

He claimed that the IMF and other financial institutions were not willing to give further loans to Pakistan while domestic budgets of families had been badly affected and people were committing suicides.