Imran Khan slashes Pakistan president's budget to less than half

The overall budget of Pakistan's presidency has been slashed by more than 60 per cent for 2020-21, while the expenditures of the Supreme Court and the Islamabad High Court enhanced for the same period, according to the budget document. Pakistan announced its budget for 2020-21 on Friday and its details are still emerging.

The Dawn newspaper reported that the total budget of the President House was Rs 992 million for the outgoing fiscal year but President Arif Alvi reduced it by Rs 597 million, or 60.18 per cent for 2020-21, and the reduction was shown in personal expenditures of the president along with cuts in allowances of the human resources working there.

The budget book 2020-21 shows that regular allowance and other allowances of staff and officers posted in the President Secretariat are Rs 193.22 million for the upcoming fiscal year, as compared to Rs 458.74 million spent under the same head in the outgoing fiscal year.

Similarly, a major cut has been made in the operating expenditures of the presidency to Rs 53.38 million, which was Rs 180.44 million in the fiscal 2019-20. A major reduction has been made in the repair and maintenance expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year at Rs 3.86 million as compared to Rs 21 million in the outgoing year.

It seems that President Alvi is not taking any salary that was Rs 10.75 million in 2019-20 as there is no mention of this head in the budget book along with other expenditures such as Rs 15.65 million for his tour expenses and Rs 63.37 million as miscellaneous spending, the report said.

The budget was increased for the Supreme Court, the Islamabad High Court, federal ombudsman secretariat for protection against harassment of women at work, Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat, Federal Tax Ombudsman, offices of the Accountant General Pakistan and the Auditor General Pakistan, it said.

The expenditures of the Supreme Court show an increase of almost 15 per cent in the new budget, at Rs 2.40 billion, which includes an increase in salary and allowances by 16.12 percent for the next fiscal year. The budget book shows that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has increased the salaries and allowances of its human resources including judges, other officers and staff by 33.86 per cent.

The total budget of the Prime Minister including "internal and public" is Rs 863.00 million, down from the Rs 1.04 billion expenses incurred in the outgoing fiscal year, the report said. Cuts made in almost all the heads and the employees related expenditures of the PM House office is Rs 686.8 million against Rs 752.8 million incurred in the last fiscal year, whereas the approved budget of pay and allowances of the PM office for 2019-20 was Rs 879.4 million.