SALARY disparities have remained a constant source of discontentment among the civil servants but regrettably instead of taking measures to address the problem the successive governments complicated it further because of special favours showered on different departments on various pretexts. It was in this backdrop that the issue was agitated by the Upper House of Parliament on Friday where Senators belonging to different parties expressed concern over growing disparity in salary and privileges of workers and civil servants.
The issue was highlighted in the context of the recent hike in the salary package for MPI, II and III scales as well as the details given to the house about emoluments paid to senior officers of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) who were drawing salaries ranging between Rs1.7 million and Rs3.9 million a month. The lawmakers also questioned the justification for 164 retired military and civil officers residing abroad receiving pensions in dollars. Similarly, the House was informed that the government offices and residences in Islamabad were getting free electricity worth Rs10 billion annually. It may be pointed out that both the PTI Government and the Coalition Government headed by Mian Shehbaz Sharif pledged to reduce the disparity but in the process created more disparities as some departments were given 15% disparity reduction allowance while others were completely ignored. Only recently, the Caretaker Prime Minister approved a 140% executive allowance for FBR officers of grade-17 and above. This lopsided approach on the part of the authorities concerned is unfortunate as on the one hand there are proposals to get rid of numerous departments on the plea of reducing expenditure but on the other hand some departments are receiving double salaries. No doubt, civil servants need compensation proportional to the sky-rocketing inflation but there should be no discrimination or special favours at the cost of payment of ordinary salary and pension to others.
