Punjab abolishes 75,000 posts across 44 departments

The Punjab government has abolished 75,000 posts across 44 departments and their subordinate bodies under its right-sizing policy, Express News reported, citing finance department sources who put the annual saving at between Rs35 billion and Rs40 billion.

Right-sizing committees have been constituted in the 44 departments and their subordinate institutions, and the exercise is continuing. Most of the posts struck down had been lying vacant for years.

School education accounts for the largest share, with 30,391 posts from grade 1 to grade 16 removed. Agriculture lost 5,199 posts, forests 753, irrigation 1,041, housing 727, special education 244, and the prosecution department and its subordinate offices 221. Express News reported that 2,000 posts in the education department were eliminated in recent days.

In August the government approved the removal of 101 more posts in various departments and in the South Punjab Secretariat. In the Civil Secretariat, 128 grade-17 posts of section officers were abolished, and the government decided to bring in specialists in law, finance, information technology, artificial intelligence and data analysis in place of the traditional office structure.

The school education department approved 26,898 new posts in May 2025 for 1,961 new and upgraded schools. No fresh recruitment was made against them. According to Express News, the government decided instead to adjust existing teaching and support staff across schools where they were needed, leaving the approved positions unfilled.

The policy also covers reorganising unnecessary posts and carrying out routine office work through digital systems rather than on paper.