THE government on Friday reportedly directed Nargis Sethi, the Chairperson of Pay and Pension Commission to review the existing pay and pension mechanism and monetization of perks and privileges in order to have a financially viable solution for public sector employees.
The Pay and Pension Commission was established back in April 2020 but it mostly remained dysfunctional until Nargis Sethi, who is known for workaholic attitude, was made its Chairman about two months ago. The current price hike has badly hit the employees who have pinned great expectations with the Commission to come up with concrete suggestions that provide relief to them. It will be better for the Pay and Pension Commission to also sit with the stakeholders i.e. the Employees Union to listen to their grievances and then come up with some workable recommendations for raise in the pay and pension. There is no denying fact that the burgeoning pension bill poses a serious challenge. The pension bill at the federal level has touched Rs 477 billion and after incorporating the provinces, it exceeds Rs 1,000 billon on an annual basis. It is really satisfying to note that the government intends to come up with a contributory pension system through creation of funds that would be invested to pay the pension liabilities instead of paying pension amounts from the national exchequer. This should have been done much earlier as the contributory pension system is prevalent in many other countries and is considered as the most sustainable one. As regards salaries, we will suggest the government to bring uniform pay scales to avoid discrimination and heart-burning amongst the employees. There are employees of certain departments who are drawing massive salary packages whilst others are finding it hard to make both ends meet. Prime Minister Imran Khan himself had directed to end this discrimination and we expect it will be done now. One fully backs the idea of monetisation of perks and privileges but it must be ensured that this is not abused as has been done consistently over the last many years with the transport facility by the bureaucrats.
