ISLAMABAD, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The newly elected Pakistani government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came into power by vowing to bring changes in the country's politics, has kicked off an austerity campaign across the country to address its financial tough time.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, also the chief of the ruling PTI, has a huge fan following in the country and most of the people are showing support to his cause in social media feeds and on other platforms.
Yasir Masood, a strategic and political analyst from Islamabad, told Xinhua that the austerity measures taken by Khan has set a precedent in the right direction.
"The austerity campaign launched by the government is meant to explore all avenues to generate additional revenues and is principally an act to get hold of the worsening financial situation.
"These steps will definitely make some cushion for spending on public welfare, human resource development and socio-economic sector etc., which are synchronized with the government manifesto as well," the analyst said.
The government officially kick off the austerity campaign on Monday by putting a fleet of luxury cars reserved for the country's sitting prime minister on auction and the money earned from them will go in national treasury of the cash-strapped country.
In his victory speech in July after the general election, Khan said that he will not live in the extravagant prime minister's house so as to promote austerity for saving tax payers' money for poor people in the country.
The government recently announced that the prime minister's house will be converted into a high quality university whereas governors' residences in all four provinces of the country will be converted into museums and other tourist complexes.
Masood said that such a step taken by the top office of the government sets forth the example of leading the nation from the front. "This plan is going to work well to enhance the government capacity to generate additional revenue. This will be used to offset the mounting financial obligations and to shrink the extravagant expenses for improving the country's fiscal health to a reasonable extent."
Apart from this, the government has also sent a strong message to bureaucracy to cut down their expenses, shun luxurious style and adopt austerity measures to save taxpayers' money.
Under austerity measures, the prime minister also said that he will not be taking any unnecessary foreign trip over the next three months, also cutting the number of staff members to accompany him to foreign trips.
Economists believe that the much-hyped austerity drive is a good step taken by the new government in the initial days of its rule, but the road of economic stability is quite bumpy and the government should take more "practical" steps to bring economic reforms in the country in time.
In a conversation with Xinhua, Muhammad Amir Khan, a professor of economics at Comsats University Islamabad, said that the money saved from austerity campaign will be a small sum compared to the huge economic challenges. "The campaign may bring a change in the attitude of government officials and stop them from spending taxpayers' money lavishly. However, to meet the greater challenges of economy, the government need to take greater steps."
