Newly sworn-in Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said he will stay in the military secretary’s house instead of taking the Prime Minister House.
The secretary’s house is a three-bedroom apartment and the move is cited as a measure to cut down his own and Pakistan’s expenditure. Addressing to the nation for the first time after becoming PM he said wanted to live in his own house in Banigala but for security reasons he is not allowed.
The Prime Minister House in Pakistan has 524 servants and 80 cars.
He said, “The prime minister, which is me, also has 33 bulletproof cars. We have helicopters and aeroplanes to fly us. We have massive governor houses and every conceivable luxury… On one hand we don’t have money to spend on our people; on the other hand, we have a section of our people living like our colonial masters used to live.”
He urged people to look at how the money is spent by prime ministers on foreign tours and how the speaker spends his allotted budget, whether it is for conquering land in foreign countries.
Khan said he will only keep two people instead of 524 and just two cars. All the other bullet proof cars would be auctioned off and businesses are invited to buy those.
The general elections in Pakistan were held on July 26 and political party of former cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), emerged victorious winning 116 of the 270 seats. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party of jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif won just 64 seats while 43 seats was grabbed by former president Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
