Pay and Pension Commission asks government to increase salaries, pensions

ISLAMABAD: After the federal government’s decision to not increase salaries and pensions of its employees, the Pay and Pension Commission has forwarded its suggestion to the government urging it to increase salaries and pension and ensure uniformity in salary structures.

The federal government announced its decision to not increase salaries and pensions for the upcoming fiscal year during the presentation of the Budget 2020-21 on Friday, June 12.

In its recommendation forwarded to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the commission, which was constituted in April this year, has not only suggested an increase in salaries but also urged the government to ensure uniformity in the salary structure of government employees since there exist serious discrepancies in salaries and pension of employees of different organisations.

According to sources, the Finance Division has estimated that in case salaries and pensions are increased by 10 percent the government will have to bear an extra burden of Rs25 billion.

The Pay and Pension Commission currently has the mandate to evaluate salary structures of the employees of the federal and provincial governments as well as the armed forces with an aim of bringing some uniformity. The commission is also mandated to review the need for increase in salaries and pensions of government employees.

According to sources, though the commission could not finalise its work on salary and pension related issues prior to the Budget 2020-21, it had, however, initially made some recommendations to the government.

The six-member commission will be headed by former finance secretary Abdul Wajid Rana. However, despite its wide scope almost all the members of the commission belong to Sindh. Its members include two retired civil servants Nazar Hussain Mahar and Dr Noor Alam, President United Bank Limited Seema Kamil, Chairman National Bank of Pakistan Zubyr Soomro, and Nausheen Ahmad from ICI Pakistan Limited.

The scope of the commission includes federal and provincial civil servants, other government servants, civilians paid from defence budget, all armed forces, civil armed forces and all employees of the public sector enterprises.

The federal government’s pay structure has not remained lucrative after two provincial governments approved additional allowances of up to 150 percent. The federal government also gave special allowances to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that created unease among the employees of the Pakistan Secretariat.

Insiders claim that the ministry may review its decision of not increasing salaries and pension as different employees unions have decided to protest against the decision.

In March, thousands of employees in the Islamabad Secretariat had also registered a protest against the disparity in salaries. They were later given assurance about an increase in salaries in the Budget 2020-21.

The Federal Association of Government Engineers has also announced a country wide protest against the budget, which it says has not given any relief to engineers.