July 28, 2021: According to a statement by Fawad Chaudhry, the federal cabinet on Tuesday decided to form “threat committees” in provinces and regions where the PTI was in power to cut down on “excessive spending” on security protocols
This includes security of cabinet members, serving and retired bureaucrats, judges, ex-high ups and politicians.
Addressing a news conference after the cabinet, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s position was to take the people into confidence as to where their tax money was being spent.
Highlighting that the minimum security and protocol expenses have been borne by the federal cabinet while the highest is being spent on the judiciary, the minister will discuss the matter with the attorney general and the law minister with the judges.
“The security of judges is also paramount to the government,” he added.
According to Fawad Chaudhry, the committees would investigate the level of threat individually and security would be arranged accordingly.
“The move will help the government save millions of rupees every year.”
The Prime Minister has directed to create a new security mechanism in view of such increase in security expenditure of VIPs.
A total of 762 police personnel were deployed in the capital to protect the president, prime minister, ministers, advisers and special assistants, he said, adding that 14 Rangers and FC men were also on duty for the purpose and the total cost was 700 million.
He said that 377 police personnel were deployed in the capital for the security of judges at a cost of Rs. 287 million.
Fawad Chaudhry said that Rs 1.13 billion was being spent on security of judges in Lahore. Overall, he said, approx. Rs1.4 billion is being spent and if other provinces are included, the total amount could exceed Rs1.7 billion.
On Covid-19, Fawad Chaudhry said the cabinet has decided that state-owned enterprises should start vaccinating their employees as the economic cost of lockdown is too high. Stressing that the goal of vaccination should be achieved as soon as possible, Chaudhry said that the government would make vaccination mandatory in the ministries in the next phase.
The cabinet was informed that so far 650,000 vaccines are being administered in a day and the plan is to achieve the target of 1 million doses a day.
The government has set a target of getting 40 per cent of the population vaccinated by the end of July, the minister said. However, he added, it was behind the target.
According to Fawad Chaudhry, the government planned to vaccinate 70% of the population by the end of the year.
To ensure compliance, Fawad Chaudhry warned that the government could choose to block the SIMs of those who had not been vaccinated.
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