PM Shehbaz Sharif forms national austerity committee

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif has formed a 15-member national austerity committee to reduce the government expenditures and budget deficit, ARY News reported on Friday.

The national austerity committee will be headed by former principal secretary Nasir Khosa and Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Aisha Ghaus Pasha. The federal government also issued terms of reference (ToRs) for the national austerity committee.

The committee will forward recommendations for reducing government expenditures, fiscal management and other steps to save national resources.

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According to the ToRs, the committee will compile recommendations for structural reforms and review the losses of the state institutions. The committee will forward its recommendations to PM Shehbaz Sharif within 15 days.

The finance ministry will provide secretarial support to the austerity committee. According to the notification, the chief secretaries of the four provinces were also included in the committee.

The other members of the austerity committee include special assistant on finance, establishment adviser, special aide on government performance, CDA chairman and the secretaries of finance, cabinet, power and housing.

Moreover, economic experts including Qaiser Bangali, Zubair Khan, Farrukh Salim and governance specialist Naveed Iftikhar were also included in the committee.