Federal govt abolishes 150,000 vacant posts across ministries, says FinMin

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb said that 150,000 vacant posts have been abolished or declared as dying posts after approval by the federal cabinet.

Addressing a press conference along with the members of the Committee on Rightsizing on Tuesday, the finance minister said that the federal govt approved abolishing 60 per cent of vacant regular posts, that have not come in payroll.

The federal minister has told reporters that the process of “rightsizing of 43 ministries and their 400 attached departments will be completed by the end of this fiscal year” to reduce expenditures and enhance the government’s efficiency.

Aurangzeb along with the Convener of the National Parliamentary Taskforce on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Bilal Azhar Kayani, and Ambassador at Large Dr Salman Ahmad provided a comprehensive six-month performance overview of the work accomplished so far in this regard.

In phase one, six ministries including Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan, States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), IT and Telecom, Industries and Production, National Health Services, and Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) were processed.

The Ministries of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan and States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) have been merged, whereas, CADD has been abolished.

The attached entities of these ministries have been reduced from 80 to 40, the minister added.

The finance czar added that the general non-course services including “gardening, cleaning, and plumbing will be outsourced by the departments”, adding that the number of contingency posts will also be reduced to some extent.

He announced a new decision to “have live visibility on the cash balances of all government entities.” The finance minister said that we [the government] won’t allow departments to have idle cash balances.