The federal cabinet on Tuesday rejected the suggestion of 10 percent ad hoc relief allowance for members of the parliament (MPs), reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Briefing newsmen after the cabinet meeting, Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry said that all this was part of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s austerity drive which he had launched on the very day he had taken office. “Already huge amount of money has been saved at the Prime Minister’s House under the drive and the National Assembly has returned Rs1.54 billion to the government which it managed to save,” he recalled.

“Differing with the suggestion of allowance for the MPs, including speakers and deputy speaker of the National Assembly as well as Senate chairman and deputy chairman, members of the cabinet were of the view that parliamentarians would themselves have to set high standards of austerity before expecting others to cut down their expenditures in view of the present economic situation,” he told media.

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He said that the cabinet had approved the measures taken by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to protect its data in view of the attempt to hack its website on August 14. “But now on the completion of inquiry it has been found out that not much data of the bureau was leaked. Hackers could not access it. Now the FBR has made several arrangements, including hiring a company, which would protect its data,” Fawad said, and quoting Information Technology Minister Aminul Haq said this year around 1 million attacks had been carried out on different Pakistani websites.

The minister reminded that earlier The Guardian, a British website, had also reported that India, in collaboration with an Israeli firm, had tried to obtain steal details of conversation between some high-profile personalities of Pakistan by hacking their WhatsApp accounts. “Even Prime Minister Imran’s WhatsApp number was amongst the targets,” he added.

He informed the government would introduce 5G internet services in the country next year because it was Prime Minister Imran Khan’s desire that means of communication were improved in the country’s far-flung areas.

Fawad further said a detailed presentation of criminal laws reforms was made at the cabinet meeting, which would look into the issues of delay in the registration of FIRs as well as completion of trials.