“Disillusioned” by government policies, renowned economist Dr Kaiser Bengali has resigned from all his official positions, media reported on Saturday.

He submitted his resignation to Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and Cabinet Secretary Kamran Afzal, stepping down from three government committees focused on austerity, rightsizing, and reducing expenses.

According to reports, Dr Bengali criticised the government’s approach to cost-cutting, stating that it was laying off lower-level employees instead of officers. He pointed out that the government was taking actions contrary to the recommendations of the committees, specifically terminating employees in grades 1 to 16 while protecting the jobs of officers in grades 17 to 22.

Earlier this month, the Cabinet Committee on Institutional Reforms recommended curtailing 150,000 vacant positions, banning contingency recruitment, and outsourcing non-core services like cleaning, and janitorial work, which would gradually phase out many positions in grades 1 to 16.

The committee’s proposal involved closing 28 institutions across above mentioned five ministries, transferring the privatisation ministry and some other ministries to federal units and merging 12 institutions within such ministries.

The economist was of the view that removing senior officials from government departments could reduce annual expenses by Rs30 billion, expressing concern that “the economy is heading towards disaster and is currently on a ventilator due to debt.”

Dr Bengali acknowledged that the government had made “some commendable efforts” to cut spending and noted the significance of the three committees in this regard. He added that the committees had reviewed 70 government entities and 17 corporations, proposing the closure of 17 divisions and suggesting the shutdown of 50 government departments to reduce expenses.

In June, PM Shehbaz ordered the wrapping up of the Pakistan Public Works Department (Pak PWD) due to “years’ long poor performance and corruption.” The federal government has vowed to cut expenditures to improve the economy.

But Dr Bengali has expressed concerns over how the government handled the economy.

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While appearing on Spot Light with Munizae Jahangir in July, the economist warned that Pakistan would approach the International Monetary Fund for another bailout package after one year if the government does not reduce its expenses.

“They [government] say that we will have to again go before the IMF after three years if they kept on doing this [increasing expenses] then they will have to go to IMF after one year,” he said.

“The fundamental point is that the solution to fiscal crisis is not more taxes. It is more expenditure reduction.”