Among the serious measures taken by the government to solve the public problems arising from the country's economic crisis and financial problems, the reduction in government expenditure is the most important, which can be expected to yield good results.

The Right Sizing Committee, which was set up under the chairmanship of the Finance Minister, has submitted its recommendations to the Federal Cabinet after the approval of the relevant forum.  On Tuesday, in the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the six-point agenda based on these recommendations was considered and important decisions were taken. The recommendations of the Right Sizing Committee include elimination of one and a half lakh posts, closure or merger of several institutions and ban on new recruitments on emergency basis. Before the federal cabinet, several high-level meetings were held under the chairmanship of the prime minister, in which many important decisions regarding economic affairs were approved.

  In a meeting, it was decided to close the National Information Technology Board, approval was given to start the legal process and funds were allocated for the privatization of government institutions.  The Prime Minister directed that in the future fifty percent of government cargo should be brought from Gwadar port. Setting a target of 25 billion dollars for IT exports, he stressed on the purposeful use of the IT park and the hiring of Chinese experts to increase local exports and eliminate non-trade barriers.  The IT Park project has increased IT exports by 30%. The Prime Minister's Office and the Federal Secretariat were ordered to implement the e-office plan within three days, while the federal ministries and divisions were given two weeks' time in this regard. The recommendations of the committee under the supervision of the finance minister for right sizing, which have been approved by the federal cabinet, are of great importance, but in this regard, more attention has been paid to reducing the number of government posts and employees, while some other matters also deserve full attention. For instane, first of all, you should look at the size of the cabinet itself.  Even in some big and rich countries of the world, the number of ministers is not more than 10 to 15, while in our country, the army of ministers in the federal and provincial governments seems to be in abundance. The economic conditions of the country do not allow it.  Dozens of ministers are appointed under political expediency, whose staff is also appointed in the same ratio. Then their salaries and other benefits are immeasurable.  A minister is a public representative. The perks and perks of bureaucracy are far greater. At such a time, electricity has been made so expensive that people are being forced to commit suicide. Electricity worth billions of rupees is provided free of cost to government workers. Free petrol, gas, vehicles, bungalows, pension in lakhs and other benefits are apart from this. Along with right-sizing, other austerity measures also require tough decisions so that even the poor can easily get two meals a day.  

The government should also pay attention to this. Rising inflation and unemployment also require this. Due to the uncertain economic future, skilled manpower, especially our youth, are turning to foreign countries. The model of development should be changed and the government should fix its own house first. We have to move away from imports to exports. The formula of rolling over by taking loans from friendly countries will not work, now we will invest instead of aid from them.  At present, the economic risks include macroeconomic imbalances, increasing internal and external and revolving debts, loss-making companies and institutions, environmental degradation, transparency in the tax system, public-private partnerships, energy and inflation, etc.  Economic and financial will be restored within. This is the best way to get the dear country out of the current crises. In recent years, the government and the business and industrial establishments are constantly making noise that their condition is constantly deteriorating. The austerity campaign has to be started in the government institutions themselves. The current situation is that many non-governmental organizations are firing their employees.  Many industries are on the verge of collapse while businesses are close to closing down due to the ever-increasing inflation. The worst affected are day laborers who are unable to find employment. Famines are coming in their houses. A recent report by the UN, which has placed Pakistan among the lower middle class economies, has revealed  that it will be seemingly difficult to seek a well-paid   employment opportunities in the new year  as compared to last year. Since Pakistan is on the floods plain so it will remain exposed to high risk of natural disasters and the economic meltdown is going to persist, with job opportunities to be difficult task not only at home but also abroad as the world economy is also in recession. As a matter of fact, misfortunes and adversaries never come alone, they say.

The same can be applied to current economic scenario of the country, where the common man is beset with a series of adversaries ranging from price-hike to inflation to unemployment, which are breaking their backbone. In fact, unemployment at times of double digit inflation is something that proves detrimental to people from working class strata of the society. Yes, the latest statistics on the genie of unemployment are really disappointing and points to rather difficult times for the masses in the post pandemic situation when food prices have escalated beyond imagination, rupee has lost its worth and inflation is at its peak. What is more painful is that the unemployment rate among degree-holders is almost three times higher than the other overall unemployed workforce. This is attributed to the mismatch between the education being imparted and the need of the economy to sufficiently absorb fresh graduates. But the question is what the government is doing to address this drawback of our education system. Till now no mega plan is in sight to work on increasing employment opportunities for the degree holders. The irony is that govt does not have an exact number of educated youths as no research was being done at the government level.  According to the government's annual plan, Pakistan has the 9th largest labour force in the world which is increasing with the passage of time. But these claims stand in stark contrast with the ground realities.  Pakistan's economy has badly affected by the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and then floods. This adverse economic situation has resulted in decline of employment opportunities due to halt in various business activities, decline in export and cut in production due to supply chain disruption. All these factors also resulted in increase in unemployment.