THE Federal Government has constituted a Pay and Pension Commission to evaluate salary structures of employees of the federal and provincial governments as well as armed forces with a view to bringing some uniformity and reviewing the need for further increase. The six-member commission will be headed by former Finance Secretary Abdul Wajid Rana and includes prominent professionals from private sector, who will assess existing situation and recommend measures for improvement in salary and pension.
The formation of the Commission would surely be welcomed by government servants who have long been protesting against serious discrimination in the existing pay structure. There is a sense of deprivation among mainstream civil servants in the backdrop of wholesale increase given to some selected departments and cadres of both the federal and provincial governments. The selected approach of granting pay raise to some institutions and categories has distorted the scheme of Basic Pay Scales and there was dire need to bring about uniformity and restore confidence of those who feel deprived and discriminated. There is also utter frustration among scientists, engineers and technicians working in the public sector as they are getting much less than those working in similar positions in the private sector. We hope that the Commission would assess the existing structure dispassionately and come out with a fair and transparent report, which should be implemented by the Government in letter and spirit. This is because in the past as well various commissions and pay committees made exhaustive recommendations but they were partially implemented. There are also question marks as no timeframe for submission of report by the Commission has been given and the Government will have the patent excuse of paucity of resources due to Coronavirus crisis. But fixed income groups are worst affected by the prevailing situation and they need urgent relief, which must be given at the time of announcement of the budget.
