Islamabad: Taking its accountability agenda forward, Pakistan’s current government has shared the details of spending on foreign visits by Prime Minister Imran Khan in the first three months.
Khan’s six foreign trips undertaken from September 18 to November 20 cost the national exchequer nearly Rs40.381 million (Dh1.06 million), according to the information submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the National Assembly.
In stark contrast, a single visit of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in May 2016 to the UK for treatment had cost the public treasury a total of Rs60 million which included Rs34.5 million charges of the special plane charges alone, as per the documents shared by Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Sharif, whose third term in office was cut short due to disqualification by the Supreme Court last year, spent over a billion rupees in 64 international trips.
Khan paid two visits to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia and also visited China and Malaysia during his first 100 days of the government.
However, Pakistan’s former premier chose to visit China, US, UK and India during the first few months.
According to the details shared in the Senate, the total expenses incurred on Khan’s maiden foreign trip to Saudi Arabia was Rs3.99 million while the budget of one-day visit to UAE was nearly Rs433,000. Imran spent Rs870,000 on his second two-day long visit to Riyadh. A whopping Rs24.4 million was expended on his five-day visit to China to discuss a bailout package and attend the China International Import Expo. The cost of his second trip to Abu Dhabi amounted to Rs3.99 million. Around Rs7.54 million has been incurred on recent official tour to Malaysia where PM Imran met his counterpart Mahathir Mohamad and other Malaysian officials.
The details of Khan’s travelling expense demonstrate Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s commitment towards accountability and its austerity drive. After assuming office in August 2018, Khan first announced the austerity drive to cut down unnecessary government expenses. He led by example by shifting to a smaller house instead of the PM House, auctioning luxury cars and reducing entourage, which has so far saved the national exchequer nearly Rs150 million.
On December 10, Khan in a nine-hour-long cabinet meeting reviewed the performance of 26 ministries based on their ministry’s achievements and targets and the savings made through austerity measures.
The check and balance initiative of the government was lauded by the analysts.
Zafar Jaspal, professor at Quaid-e-Azam University, termed it a positive development, saying that “It is the first time that there is a proper checks and balance on different ministries in order to improve their performance” which would encourage ministers to work efficiently as premier has already clarified that the ministers, who are not performing, will be replaced by qualified members of parliament.
