Pak abolishes 1.5 lakh jobs in austerity drive

Pakistan's Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Tuesday announced that the federal government had decided to cut the number of affiliated agencies by half, abolishing 1,50,000 jobs, as part of a sweeping cost-cutting and efficiency drive.

"We are reducing the federal government's size step by step. So far, 80 departments have been consolidated into 40," Aurangzeb said at a press conference where he highlighted the government's goal to complete these reforms by June 2025.

He added that 60 per cent of vacant positions have been abolished, which comes to 150,000 government jobs. He said that right-sizing was part of the restructuring initiative launched in mid-2024 by a committee formed under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to rationalise expenditures and improve performance.

Meanwhile, a National Assembly (NA) panel has been informed over 22,000 bureaucrats in Pakistan possess dual nationality. NA members sounded alarm over the practice and called for stringent measures to restrict it.