Abolition of basic pay system, new plan for hospitals part of reform agenda

The government is considering abolishing the basic pay scales (BPS), starting with non-gazetted staff in the public sector, and replacing them with a contract-based workforce as part of public-sector reforms to scale down the long-term cash load on the budget. Another one of the proposed reforms calls for converting all federal public sector medical facilities into semi-commercial hubs for medical tourism on the public-private partnership (PPP) basis, to generate funds for the government’s socio-economic objectives, rather than being a drain on the federal budget. Informed sources told Dawn that the Ministry of Finance had discussed these initiatives with the multilateral lending agencies, including the World Bank, and may seek their technical and financial support for their implementation.