Provincial minister for law and finance Zia Haider Rizvi called on caretaker chief minister Punjab Dr. Hasan Askari at his office here today. During the meeting, chief minister lauded the efforts of Zia Haider Rizvi and his team for taking solid measures to maintain financial discipline in the province. He appreciated different austerity measures taken by the finance department for saving of resources. Talking on the occasion, Dr. Askari said that timely and purposeful utilization of resources helps to solve the problems of the people; adding that financial discipline is imperative for every government. That is why, caretaker government has overcome the wastage of resources and effective guidelines have been issued with regards to funds’ utilizations by the finance department. Correct utilization of resources provides necessary relief to the people and sufficient space is created for proper utilization of funds for development of social sector. He said the ban on unnecessary expenditures by the caretaker government will result in producing positive impacts and more resources would be available for improving healthcare, education and other social sectors. He said that resources should be further enhanced for provision of different facilities to the masses and added that this would help in fulfilling the expectations of the people towards their government. It is the fundamental responsibility of every government to devise an effective mechanism for solving the day to day problems of the people and required resources should also be allocated in this regard. There is a need to work in a professional manner with innovative ideas to meet the emerging challenges, he added. Dr. Askari said that promotion of norms of simplicity and austerity at the government level would help to overcome the unnecessary expenditures and thus enhanced resources could be used for providing basic needs to the people. The governments should work in a proactive manner to achieve this goal, he said. Utilization of resources for solving the problems of the people paves the way for prosperity in the country, he said. Decrease in non-development expenditures is in the interest of the people and caretaker government has set an example for the upcoming government by decreasing such expenditures, concluded the chief minister. Zia Haider Rizvi apprized the chief minister about the performance of law and finance departments and said that unnecessary expenditures of different departments have been decreased by following strict financial discipline. Similarly, a saving of around four crore rupees has been made in the monthly expenditures of the chief minister’s office, he further said.
