National Assembly achieves 30% budget savings and cuts 20% of posts amid rightsizing reforms.

The National Assembly Secretariat expects major savings on this year’s 17 billion‑rupee budget, building on two years of reforms that already cut 30 percent of a cumulative 29 billion‑rupee allocation for 2024‑25 and 2025‑26. The Secretariat has abolished 302 posts and returned 8.6 billion rupees to the exchequer, savings that equal 30 percent of those allocations. A senior official said the Secretariat anticipates major savings against the 17 billion‑rupee budget. The discretionary powers to make appointments have been replaced with new law‑ and rule‑based procedures to bring greater transparency to the appointment process. The reforms come at a time when the federal government struggles to cut its bloated size and introduce civil service reforms, with only piecemeal measures undertaken so far. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb chaired a meeting of the sub‑committee on rightsizing to review progress, and the ministry’s official handout noted that waves 1 to 4 have largely progressed while recommendations for waves 5 and 6 have been prepared and shared with relevant authorities; work on waves 7 and 8 is in progress. The minister urged a more decisive move toward implementation, a clear quantification of recurring savings, and full capture of fiscal impact in the budget and medium‑term fiscal framework. The Speaker’s reforms have also introduced a service structure that requires employees to submit annual returns and wealth statements, to be made public by the Federal Board of Revenue.