The recent announcement by President Asif Ali Zardari to forgo his salary is worth appreciating. It is equally heartening to see that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is determined to cut down on government expenses.

The prime minister’s decision to ban unnecessary foreign visits of ministers, secretaries and other government officials is a positive step. It has been decided that the president will travel in first class while the prime minister, services chiefs, ministers and other staff members will travel in business class.

It is safe to assume that this may reduce government expenses. However, believing that this exercise would yield any substantial result is unrealistic. Such measures were taken in the past as well but did not turn out to be helpful. For instance, during his tenure as a caretaker prime minister, the late Malik Meraj Khalid refused to take a large fleet of cars for his protocol and preferred maintaining a low profile. Former prime minister Imran Khan also claimed to work against lavish spending by government ministers, advisers and bureaucrats.

His government opened the Prime Minister House for media persons to create the impression that the government of Nawaz Sharif spent tax money extravagantly. TV anchors took a tour of the PM House, exposing the alleged luxurious lifestyle of the elected chief executive in a bid to make people dislike the residents of the country’s top house.

Khan’s government also auctioned a number of belongings of this house ‘to drastically reduce expenses’ but it was reported that they ended up spending more money on helicopter journeys and rent accrued on VVIPs’ vehicles which were taken from the open market. In addition to that, they wasted precious time of people and government officials in orchestrating this farce which was meant to tarnish the image of the previous government and boost the popularity of ‘the pious chief executive’.

So, such austerity measures do not........

© The News International