Foreign visits of Imran, Shehbaz cabinets cost Rs65.21m to national exchequer in 2022

• A written reply was presented to a question by GDA's Ghaus Bakhsh Mehar. 
• List mentions cost of trips taken by federal cabinet from Jan-Dec 2022.
• Qadir Patel and Chaudhry Salik Hussain top the list.

ISLAMABAD: Federal ministers and prime minister's aides spent Rs65.21 million on their foreign trips from January 1, 2022, to December 2022, National Assembly (NA) was told on Monday.

As reported by The News on Tuesday, a list detailing the money spent on foreign visits was presented in NA, in a written reply to the question of the Grand Democratic Alliance's (GDA) parliamentary leader Ghaus Bakhsh Mehar. The lawmaker had sought the details of foreign trips conducted by the federal ministers, state ministers, and advisors between January 1, 2022, and December 2022.

The detailed list shared by the Cabinet Division showed that Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Abdul Qadir Patel tops the list with an expenditure of Rs10.42 million on his foreign visits. 

Similarly, Rs3.78 million was spent on Minister for Board of Investment Chaudhry Salik Hussain's visites, and Rs4.91 million on the foreign visits of Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman. 

At least, Rs1.84 million were spent on visits by Minister for Communication Maulana Asad Mehmood and Rs5.89 million on the foreign visits of Commerce Minister Syed Naveed Qamar. 

Moreover, Rs0.935 million was also spent on the foreign visits of Zubaida Jalal, the minister for defence production in Imran Khan's cabinet. 

The list also shows that Rs2.5 million was borne by the national exchequer on the foreign visits of Minister for Defence Production Israr Tareen while Rs3.167 million on the foreign visits of Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif. 

It also mentioned that Rs2.60 million was also spent on the foreign visits of Khurram Dastgir and Rs3.5 million on the foreign trips of the Minister of State for Energy (Petroleum Division) Dr Musadik Malik. 

The list goes on to mention that, Rs1.5 million (Rs1,529,964) were also spent from the taxpayer's money on the trips of former minister for economic affairs Omar Ayub Khan, Rs0.912 million on the former minister for federal education and professional training Shafqat Mehmood. While Mehmood's successor, Rana Tanveer Hussain spent only Rs178,401 on his foreign visits.

The list also showed that former finance minister senator Shaukat Tarin spent Rs912,239 on his foreign visits and Rs4.59 million was spent by his successor Miftah Ismail. 

The list mentioned that Rs2.45 million was borne by the national exchequer on the foreign trips of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Rs4.096 million was spent on the visits of the Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Rs1.54 million on the visits of Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Ehsan-ur-Rehman Mazari and Rs619,157 on visits of Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb. 

Meanwhile, Rs1.8 million of the taxpayer's money was also spent on the trips of Minister for Information Technology Syed Aminul Haq, Rs818,646 on Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar, Rs805,954 on Minister for Maritimes Affairs Senator Faisal Sabzwari, Rs3.117 million on Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Sajid Hussain Turi, Rs1.58 million on Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Justice Shazia Marri and Rs791,256 on Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Mufti Abdul Shakoor.

Similarly, Rs39,850 was also spent on the visits of a former national security advisor Moeed Yousaf to Kabul and Rs19,296 to China. Imran Khan's advisor on commerce Abdul Razak Dawood spent Rs466,285 and Rs481,854 on visits to Dubai.

An amount of Rs328,332 was spent on the foreign trips of former special assistant to the prime minister (SAPM) on social protection and poverty alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar to Dubai, Rs195,309 on ex-SAPM on climate change Malik Amin Aslam to Saudi Arabia, Rs457,383 on ex-SAPM on tourism coordination Azam Jamil to Dubai and Rs1,437,139 on SAPM on poverty alleviation Faisal Karim Kundi's visit  to Egypt and Rs1,333,960 on a visit to Istanbul.

The NA was also informed that Rs57.36 million was spent on the purchase of eight new vehicles for the protocol squad of foreign guests.

In a written reply to a question by Sikandar Ali Rahoupoto, the NA was informed that the vehicles include one 29-seater Toyota VIP Coaster (Model 2022) costing Rs17,154,000, 14 seaters Toyota high roof van (Model 2022) costing Rs10,772,000 and six 1800cc Toyota Corolla Cars (Model 2022) costing Rs29,400,000.