EDITORIAL: Secretary Cabinet Division informed the Standing Committee on Finance that the cabinet has decided to abolish 30,968 posts in different departments with 7,724 declared as dying posts to be abolished in future.
This number includes vacant posts that were not filled as well as the retirement of those occupying existing posts that would not be filled – a planned approach not expected to generate organised civil disobedience.
The Secretary detailed scale-wise abolishment of posts – 7,305 in Scale 1, with only two posts in grade 21 and 22 to be abolished under this plan.
In future 36 posts under Grade-20 and 99 posts in Grade-19 would be abolished, he added. Reports suggest that the government has estimated around 150,000 are vacant in the Centre and autonomous bodies after the recent abolition of an equal number of positions by the incumbent government.
The latest Annual Statistical Bulletin of the Federal Government employees is two years old - 2022-23 - and reveals total sanctioned strength of 1,239,619, including attached departments and autonomous bodies but working strength, due to a freeze on appointments, stood at 947,610 leaving a vacancy of about 292,009. The number of employees working for the federal government was 590,585 against a sanctioned strength of 710,808 leaving a vacancy of 120,223.
Cabinet Secretary informed the Committee members that the regulatory authorities would not be impacted by the rightsizing exercise but did not specifically mention whether those working in autonomous bodies would be impacted in future. As per the bulletin, 357,025 employees work in autonomous bodies against sanctioned posts of 528,811, implying 171,786 positions remained vacant estimated to have risen since 2023, given fewer recruitments.
Interior Division comprised of 42.83 percent (252,8932) consisting of the largest administrative unit due to civil armed forces while Defence Division came in second and accounted for 22.77 percent of the total working strength. The third, fourth and fifth position was occupied by Railways at 11.26 percent, Communications at 5.04 percent and Revenue Division at 14.84 percent.
And what is very disturbing is the fact that 27,011 officers worked in BS 17-22 while the percentage share of Grades 17 to 22 stood in descending order at 53.4, 29.32, 11.24, 4.16, 1.46 and 0.34 percent, respectively. Needless to add, recruitments based on nepotism and for political reasons have been reported by all major parties, federal and provincial, during previous administrations and these need to be dealt with on an emergent basis.
It must be borne in mind that several other governments are engaging in an exercise to rightsize - the Trump administration is the most recent committed to this salutary objective - which indicates the fact that the realization that bloated bureaucracies around the world are costing the taxpayers huge sums in salaries and perks are no longer acceptable.
There is a resistance to rightsizing and Elon Musk, heading the Department of Government Efficiency, is encountering media opposition as well as legal obstacles; however, his stated objective is to save the taxpayers around 2 trillion dollars a year that would reduce the burden on the taxpayers through a decline in the national debt.
Pakistan’s civil government was budgeted 713,969 million rupees in 2023-24, was disbursed 753,000 million rupees (a rise of about 5.5 percent from what budgeted) and this year was allocated 839,000 million rupees or a rise of 11.5 percent from what was disbursed last year.
Defence employees-related expenses were budgeted at 705,054 million rupees in 2023-24 with 734,614 million rupees actually disbursed or a rise of 4 percent and was budgeted 815,186 million rupees this year or a rise of 11 percent. In addition, pensions payable entirely at the taxpayers’ expense rose from the budgeted 801 million rupees to 1,014 million rupees: a rise of nearly 27 percent in just one year.
Cuts can and must be made but should be based on a cost-benefit analysis of the actual need of an institution/department and reforms urgently implemented in the pension system as well as seeking voluntary sacrifice from major recipients of the budgetary allocation.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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