There will not be a long menu for VIP guests and the general public at a meeting of the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee to sight the Ramzan moon on March 22 as it had planned to serve.
“The ministry should be very cautious of the fact that austerity measures should be taken in all respects of expenditures spent from the public exchequer,” Barrister Feroze Jamal Shah Kakakhel, the caretaker minister for information and public relations, said on Friday.
He said this before issuing orders for immediate withdrawal of the short tender notice which sought quotations from different firms for the arrangement of the moon-sighting body.
The lavish menu was ordered for 100 VIPs and 100 general public at the Auqaf office complex Eidgah Charsadda Road, Peshawar.
What was in the menu?
The detailed set of arrangements included items that are mostly seen at weddings. Here is the list:
Food for VIPs 100 persons
Food for general public 100 persons
Reception Tea
This has come at a time when many in the country were unable to have a square meal. The impact of the staggering economy coupled with the devastating floods has affected the lower and middle classes of society. Many analysts believe the same class was bearing the brunt in the government’s decisions to “meet International Monetary Fund’s requirements”.
“It shouldn’t be that the wealthy benefit from subsidies. It should be the poor [who] benefit from them. And there the Fund is very clear. We want the poor people of Pakistan to be protected,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on February 22.
It merits her to mention that Thursday’s tender notice came after two days when the KP’s Finance Department banned the use of mineral water in its offices and meetings.
Kakakhel has also sought a detailed report within 12 hours on the development.
“Ruet-e-Hilal Committee are our most honorable guests and are welcomed. The invitation should be extended to the members of Ruet-e-Hilal Committee and not as has transpired by the tender,” he was quoted as saying in a letter to the secretary of Auqaf, Hajj, Religious and Minority Affairs Department.
