Sindh Goes All-In on Austerity: Schools Shut, Friday WFH, Big Cuts Everywhere
The Sindh cabinet didn’t waste time Tuesday rolling out tough new belt-tightening rules to fight the fuel-price storm blowing in from the Iran conflict. Schools province-wide slam shut for spring break starting March 16 right through March 31. Colleges and universities flip to full online mode for those two weeks. Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon made one thing crystal clear: any exam already on the calendar runs as planned—no postponements, no excuses for students.
Offices stay open Monday through Thursday like always. Come Friday, though, everyone clocks in from home. Memon laid it out plain: “Monday to Thursday you show up at the desk. Friday is remote.” The whole package mirrors Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s national call to slash waste and squeeze every rupee out of public funds while global oil keeps jumping.
Deep Slashes Hit Fuel, Salaries, and Extras
Meanwhile, fuel for government vehicles drops 50 percent straight away—projected to pocket Rs960 million in savings. Ministers voluntarily give up three months of salary. Non-essentials get axed hard: no new office furniture, minimal stationery, zero fancy purchases. That alone should save roughly Rs12 billion. Overseas junkets? Forget it unless absolutely critical, and then only Economy seats.
Extra security convoys for ministers shrink or vanish so those police jeeps can actually help regular people. Official Iftar dinners and post-Ramadan refreshments? Banned for two full months. The Chief Minister’s plane stays parked. Everyone’s under orders to treat public cash like it’s their own last paycheck.
Other Provinces Join the Squeeze
Additionally, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan aren’t sitting idle either. They’re closing colleges on select days, pushing work-from-home where possible, anything to burn less fuel and soften the blow for families already feeling the pinch at petrol pumps. With crude prices still wild after Middle East disruptions, these moves aim to keep everyday costs from spiraling worse.
