ISLAMABAD The federal cabinet meeting held on Wednesday on a Navy ship anchored near the Gwadar port is estimated to have cost the nation over Rs5 million, making it the most expensive cabinet meeting in the country's history.
It was held just 10 days after the government had approved austerity measures to reduce its expenditure.
“This indicates how seriously Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and members of his cabinet take their own decisions and how they are going to give up their elitist lifestyle,” a senior official of the Ministry of Finance told Dawn.
He said the ministry did not know exactly how much had been spent on the cabinet meeting because provincial governments, federal ministries and departments used their own resources for travelling, lodging, boarding and other expenses.
However, he said that according to a safe estimate the meeting must have cost the national exchequer more than Rs5 million in just two days.
About 200 government leaders and officials, including the prime minister and his entourage, federal and provincial ministers and chief ministers and their secretaries and supporting staff, travelled by air from the four provincial capitals and Islamabad to attend the meeting.
Other officials suggest that the expenditure on the joyride was even higher.
The government's objective to sign a consensus NFC award could have been better served had the meeting been held in Quetta at a much lower cost and higher political benefits.
Interestingly, only a day after the Arabian Sea cabinet meeting, the federal government notified formation of a high-powered committee headed by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin to ensure implementation of the austerity measures approved by the cabinet on Dec 17.
When contacted, Mr Tarin declined to comment on the austerity measures and expenses incurred on the cabinet meeting held on board PNS Babar. He, however, said that a “strong booster” was required to make the government give up its princely lifestyle and implement the austerity measures.
Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira did not respond to calls and text messages seeking his comments.
Informed sources said that Prime Minister Gilani had flown from the federal capital one day ahead of the meeting on a special C-130 plane, along with more than 80 officials and about two dozen media personnel.
The prime minister's own team comprised about 10 personal security staff and 12 civil and military secretaries and physicians. A number of other media teams travelled from Karachi and Quetta to cover the signing ceremony of the NFC award and the cabinet meeting.
The chief ministers travelled with equally strong ancillary staff. The federal and provincial finance ministries had brought with them their own teams.
Besides, a large number of officials and personnel of intelligence and security agencies had taken over the entire area much ahead of the cabinet meeting or arrival of the prime minister.
It was for the first time that Gwadar Pearl Continental Hotel had hosted such a large number of guests since its completion a few years ago. The only five-star hotel in Gwadar has 94 rooms all of which had been booked for the prime minister's entourage.
For some cynics in the government it was sort of a picnic on the shores of Gwadar arranged in the name of a cabinet meeting.
An official of the hotel said that previously only two floors of the hotel were operational, but because of the prime minister's visit two more floors were opened. The normal rate of a room in the hotel ranges between Rs10,500 and Rs15,000 per day.
Six-course meals were served to guests staying at the hotel and in navy residences, government rest-houses and other hotels around the port.
This was a glaring deviation from one of the austerity measures approved by the cabinet that allows only one dish at lunches and dinners.
An official said that an unfortunate accident took place when a journalist staying close to a high-tension transmission line was seriously injured because of electric shock and he had to be flown to Karachi for treatment.
