Austerity is good but government has created more liability for itself

Costs for salary and pension of government staff and social security up by Rs76 billion for the next fiscal year as the ‘election-oriented’ budget focuses on populist schemes.

The government’s seemingly contradictory policies—increasing the recurrent budget massively while promising austerity measures to control administrative costs—largely appear to be aimed at influencing the upcoming federal and provincial elections, experts say.