Freezing salaries and pensions

The denial of financial relief to govt employees and pensioners has come for scathing criticism from PPP and PML-N

With the salaried class and pensioners being the worst suffers at times of fast erosion in the value of money because of exploding prices and contraction in exports, and the problem having been exacerbated by the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic, it has come as a shock that the federal government employees and pensioners have not been allowed an increase in salaries and pensions as the federal budget for the next fiscal year was announced, on June 12. This freeze on emoluments and pensions is likely to hurt pensioners the most for they are a group of people with limited income. Their income contracts at a time when their responsibilities have increased. They have to marry off and educate their offspring and meet their and their wives’ increasing medical bills. They also need to keep up appearances in society. So denying them a raise will make life more difficult for them.

However, it was unrealistic on the part of government servants and pensioners to expect an increase in pay and pensions in the new budget because of the double whammy that the nation’s economy is facing: it is being kept going with the help of loans being provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other global donors and financial aid from friendly countries, and the raging coronavirus pandemic that has made matters worse. Though earlier it was being expected that salaries and pensions would be increased by as much as 20%, the government reportedly capitulated to pressure from the global lender to put a freeze on salaries and pensions to adhere to the path of fiscal consolidation by showing a nominal primary deficit in the new budget. EOBI pensioners had been promised an increase of Rs2,000 in their pension. This too did not materialise.

The denial of financial relief to government employees and pensioners has come for scathing criticism from leaders of the PPP and the PML-N. They are justified in their criticism given the fact that it is too harsh a measure for people with limited income. We can only console ourselves with the saying, “My wallet is like an onion, opening it makes me cry.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2020.

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