A meeting of the federal cabinet has decided that the government will cut down on its expenses in light of the economic situation of the country.

The government has announced that ministers, advisers, and special assistants will not take additional allowances such as travel and housing reimbursements. They will also not travel in business class on government expenditure or stay in five-star hotels. “Austerity is the need of the time,” PM Shehbaz told the meeting.

“We will make sacrifices ourselves first, before asking anyone else for money,” the prime minister said.

Shehbaz said that the present government would have to fix the economy, regardless of whether difficulties arose from the IMF’s conditions or the past government’s choices.

The PM also expressed hope that the IMF tranche would be released soon which would lead to improvement in the state of the economyPrime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday unveiled a massive austerity drive at the federal government level to slash expenditures while eyeing an ambitious plan to save Rs200 billion annually.