The Cabinet Committee on Institutional Reforms on Friday recommended curtailing 150,000 vacant government positions, banning contingency recruitment, and outsourcing non-core services like cleaning, janitorial work to gradually phase out a majority of government employees in grades 1 to 16.
Chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the meeting considered various means to reduce public sector size and expenses. In this regard, a committee chaired by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb submitted its recommendations for rightsizing of federal government departments.
According to a statement, the committee’s briefing detailed various recommended reforms for five federal ministries: the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, the Ministry of State and Frontier Regions, Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, the Ministry of Industry and Production, and the Ministry of National Health Services. It proposed merging the ministries of Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan and State and Frontier Regions (SAFRON).
Additionally, it proposed shuttering 28 institutions across these five ministries, transferring the Ministry of Privatization and some other ministries to federal units, and merging 12 institutions within these ministries.
Addressing the meeting, the prime minister directed authorities concerned to ensure the approval of these proposals by the federal cabinet and sought a comprehensive plan for their implementation. He emphasized that curtailing government expenditures was his top priority. “The goal of the government’s institutional reforms is to lessen the burden on the national treasury and enhance the quality of services provided to the public,” he said.
Sharif also ordered the immediate termination or expedited privatization of any institutions that are failing to demonstrate adequate public service performance and burdening the national exchequer. He also vowed to personally oversee the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), directing for it to be brought under the Prime Minister’s Office.