A perk too far

MPs will now receive a monthly salary package of Rs470,000

If there is any single subject that is going to attract controversy anywhere in the world, it is any upwards adjustment of the salary and allowances paid to elected members of democratic assemblies. There is a generalised, if not always entirely justified, public perception that assembly members and parliamentarians are overpaid and underworked. Now it is the turn of Pakistan as a review of salaries and allowances for parliamentarians has rolled over the horizon which recommends some positively eye-watering increases which are said to be “commensurate with their status” and bringing them on a par with BS-22 officers, upping their pocket money to a monthly allowance of Rs470,000.

This exponential jump — they are currently paid, including allowances, around Rs80,000 which is admittedly on the low side — is contained in a set of recommendations that were presented by the Acting Chairman of the Standing Committee on rules of Procedure and Privileges, Chaudhry Mehmood Bashir Virk, and to the surprise of nobody was unanimously adopted as a motion by parliamentarians. Considering that a majority of our parliamentarians are not exactly poverty-stricken before they decided to dedicate their lives to the service of the common man, this is a bit of a stretch. Whilst we do not believe that our parliamentarians should be paid what some would see as a poverty wage, we do believe that there should be a linkage between pay and productivity. A casual look at the Lower House and the Senate on any given day that either is sitting reveals that attendance is often thin, indeed it is not unusual for both houses to be adjourned for lack of a quorum. Were there to be a similar dilatory approach across the spectrum of BS-22 officers, there would quickly be rumblings of discontent, but our parliamentarians appear happy to take our votes and equally happy to be feather-bedded through their tenure with little by way of measured outputs or productivity. A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work by all means, but the common voter will see this as far from a square deal — and equally far from being value for money. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2016.

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