Pakistan cabinet ministers reluctant to return luxury cars despite economic crisis

Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was informed in a meeting that more than half of the luxury vehicles given to cabinet members, parliamentary secretaries and chairmen of standing committees had not been returned to the cabinet division that maintains the federal government’s central pool.

Dar was chairing the second meeting of the monitoring committee on implementation of austerity measures.

In the meeting, Dar was informed through a compliance report that 14 out of 30 vehicles had been returned by the cabinet members while 16 were still in use, Pakistan-based Dawn reported.

However, a statement by the finance division said that a majority of the cabinet members had surrendered luxury vehicles.

The meeting expressed concerns about the non-return of the remaining luxury vehicles. The committee directed the cabinet division for strict implementation of the decision and to get back the luxury vehicles within three days.

Furthermore, the meeting also reflected on the withdrawal of use of security vehicles and decided to implement the decision in its letter and spirit.

Serious concerns were expressed on the use of SUV/sedan cars above 1800cc by some officers and all authorities were directed to immediately stop the use of all these vehicles by the government officials.

The Ministry of Law and Justice was entrusted with the task to “approach the superior judiciary suggesting implementation of austerity measures in judiciary and approach Senate chairman and National Assembly speaker regarding use of tele-conferences for all meetings to save time and expenditure", as per the Dawn report.

It must be noted that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had asked his ministries to fly economy class, forgo luxury cars and their salaries as part of an austerity drive that will save the government 200 billion rupees ($766 million) a year.

At the meeting held on Monday, the working timings were also discussed by the committee. It was decided that the new timing for office work will be 7.30 am to 2.30 pm and up to 12.30 pm on Friday, starting from the first of Ramazan and will be followed in the summer season as per the decision of the Cabinet.

The meeting was also attended by Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Rana Tanveer Hussain, Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar, Adviser to Prime Minister on Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Qamar Zaman Kaira, Special Assistant to PM on Finance Tariq Bajwa and Special Assistant on Revenue Tariq Mehmood Pasha besides federal secretaries and senior officers.

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