These ministries are science and technology, commerce, housing and works, national food security and research and the related departments.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif presided over the meeting. The committee proposed the complete closure of some departments and the merger of others.

“The implementation of these recommendations is expected to save the national exchequer approximately Rs42.1 billion, it was added,” said the statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.

The prime minister instructed that a review of the right-sizing recommendations and their implementation be conducted and a report in this regard be presented again in the cabinet’s meeting.

Furthermore, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi briefed the cabinet on the Parachinar situation. Relief activities were continuing in Parachinar and both the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments were collaborating in such efforts.