The Sindh government on Tuesday announced its own set of austerity measures to curtail the economic impact of the ongoing regional tensions, stating that schools will observe a spring vacation and government offices will work from home on Fridays. Addressing a press conference, Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said schools across the province will have a \u201cspring vacation from March 16 to 31, while colleges and universities will switch to online classes\u201d. However, he noted, no ongoing exams will be postponed. The minister also clarified that, contrary to some media reports, government functioning will not stop on Fridays. Instead, government officials will work from home (WFH). \u201cMonday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday \u2014 you have to work. On Friday, you have to work from home,\u201d he said. The Sindh minister affirmed that the province endorsed all the decisions announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday. \u201cThe Sindh government has launched its austerity campaign,\u201d he added. He declared that the provincial government would reduce the fuel allotted for official vehicles by 50 per cent, which would save around Rs960 million. The provincial ministers have also decided to forgo their salaries for three months from April to June, Memon added. He further said that the government will send a reference to the Sindh Assembly speaker, but it was up to the speaker and the lawmakers to decide on any similar measure for MPAs. Memon said that \u201cunnecessary government expenditure\u201d, such as buying furniture and stationery, will be reduced by 20pc, which he said would save around Rs12 billion. The senior minister stated there would be a complete ban on the government buying \u201cnew vehicles and items\u201d, except where necessary, such as ambulances or law and order vehicles. \u201cUnnecessary foreign visits\u201d would also be barred, Memon said, highlighting that if an official trip was required, Economy Class will be used and \u201cno one will be allowed to use Business Class\u201d. Detailing further steps, Memon said \u201cmany ministers, including the chief minister, said they wanted to withdraw or curtail their security\u201d so that police vehicles could instead be utilised for the public and extra expenses could be avoided. He added that the cabinet had \u201cmandated the law minister\u201d to immediately withdraw the security protocol allotted to \u201cmany such people who were utilising the Sindh government\u2019s and Sindh Police\u2019s security unnecessarily\u201d. Memon noted these specifically included former caretaker ministers and \u201ccommittee members\u201d, remarking that people had \u201cunfortunately made it a status symbol\u201d. \u201cSecurity is not being withdrawn from those who have genuine cases,\u201d the senior minister affirmed. He emphasised, \u201cThe cabinet has taken strict action, ordering that all kinds of unnecessary expenditures be halted immediately.\u201d Memon said no Iftar parties would be held on the government\u2019s expenditure and any official event would not be organised at any five-star hotel but at a government building. \u201cChief minister sahib and we have decided together that from now on, no minister will attend any Iftari [\u2026] Charity begins from home,\u201d he said. He further announced that refreshments on government expenses will be prohibited in all government offices for two more months after Ramazan. The minister also expressed his government\u2019s solidarity with the armed forces, noting the Operation Ghazab lil-Haq underway on the Pak-Afghan border against terrorists. \u201cWhen we speak about challenges, it is not your or mine, it is our challenge,\u201d he remarked. Responding to a journalist\u2019s question, Memon said the CM\u2019s plane \u201cwill remain grounded during these days\u201d, also clarifying that the aircraft had been purchased by the previous chief minister. The minister stressed that the money saved by implementing the austerity measures will be utilised for the \u201cpublic\u2019s welfare\u201d. He added that the government\u2019s priority was not to let the \u201caftereffects\u201d of the fuel price hikes impact the public. The Sindh government\u2019s move follows the Centre\u2019s announcement of austerity measures to conserve fuel in view of the global fuel crisis triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran. The federal government announced a 50pc cut in fuel allowance for official vehicles, with the exemption of operational vehicles such as ambulances and public buses, for the next two months. Among several other measures, the federal cabinet members also decided to forgo their salaries and allowances for the next two months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Sindh government…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7918,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sindh"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeetnews.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}