The government's decision to appoint one Federal Minister and one Minister of State from Pakistan Muslim League (Q) to head the Privatisation Commission is blatantly violative of its medium term macroeconomic framework 2011-14 which has not projected any proceeds from privatisation of state owned entities during the entire period (2011-14), as per the Budget Strategy Paper 2011-12.
Both the Ministers are reportedly engaged in spending millions of rupees on renovation of their offices that is not expected to have a single rupee return. In addition both the ministers would cost the exchequer lakhs of rupees from the taxpayers' money for their allowances, cars and staff.
Finance Ministry is urging rationalisation of fuel entitlement, travelling allowance and expenditure on stationary and newspaper periodicals. Finance Ministry which allocates and releases funds to ministries and divisions is focused on containing the fiscal deficit to 4.5 per cent of GDP in 2011-12, requiring significant belt tightening. The forthcoming budget has proposed a set of indicative ceilings for all ministries/divisions, including continuation of a ban on new recruitment due to surplus staff from devolution process and purchase of durable goods from the devolved ministries/divisions; however it is unclear whether the government will be able to keep within the indicative ceilings by the end of the year.