Federal government bans cabinet members, officers' overseas tours, treatment

Islamabad: The Federal government on Tuesday announced its austerity measures and banned the procurement of cars, overseas tours and treatments of government officials and buying of furniture and machinery for government offices.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcast Maryam Aurangzeb along with PPP’s Qamar Zaman Kaira and JUI-F’s Amin-ul-Haq and Asad Mehmood held a press briefing after the PM’s meeting with the cabinet on Tuesday morning.

The PML-N leader said that the current power demand of the country is 28,400MW which includes 2700MW of line losses while the supply is 21,000MW.

Three powerplants including the Shanghai electric Thar and Crote powerplant had been completed but were unoperational in the PTI era. The official duration of load shedding between June 6 to 15 in the country will be three and a half hours, she added.

She said that the duration of load shedding would be decreased to two hours until June 30 with the addition of the Sahiwal powerplant, K2 project, and Port Qasim coal-based powerplant in the national grid. The PM has also approved the reduction of the fuel quota of the cabinet members and government officials by 40%, she added.

Maryam added that the Saturday weekly off has also been resumed by the government, while the power committee’s advice to make Friday a ‘work from home’ day will be considered by a committee. The cabinet has also approved initiating an awareness campaign about fuel efficiency which will soon be started, she added.

The federal minister added that the government has banned the procurement and purchase of all vehicles, except ambulance and education shuttle services, by the government amid the emergency situation. The treatment of cabinet members or government officials from abroad has also been banned by the government, she added.

Official visits, purchase of furniture, or machinery by any government officials will be subject to the decision of a committee.

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The government has also announced to form a committee to investigate the rigging in Daska by-polls where the whole polling staff had disappeared, Maryam Aurangzeb announced.