Owing to the increasing expenditure related to the salaries of government employees, all the four provinces of the country have stopped the recruitment of new employees to manage their financial burdens.
According to government statistics, the total number of approved government posts in the country stands at 2,924,289. At present, however, only 2,271,186 employees are currently working for the government. Besides, government employees from grade-one to grade-22 have to be paid Rs1.426 trillion in salaries annually.
Sources said that a large sum of money in the annual budget earmarked for the provinces goes to the salaries of government employees to run the administrative affairs of the country. For this reason, the provinces are trying not to recruit more government employees and are focusing on the employees already holding existing posts.
The number of approved posts for government employees in K-P is 533,412, while currently, only 421,977 employees are working in the province. An amount of Rs257 billion has to be paid annually in salaries to the employees. About 26,557 people are currently working for K-P’s education department, 47,639 for the health department, while 70,062 workers belong to the police force. There are 157,628 pensioners in K-P to whom more than Rs69 billion have to be paid annually.
The number of approved government employees in Punjab is about 1.3 million, but on the contrary, 1.07 million people have been appointed on governmental posts. For the purpose, a total sum of Rs649.71 billion is paid to the employees annually. The Punjab education department has 462,556 employees, the health department has 191,470 employees, while the police department has 190,082 employees. Similarly, the number of pensioners in Punjab is 58,166 for which an annual payment of more than Rs2 trillion has to be made by the government. Punjab is the only province where 359 employees have been placed in government departments on a special pay package.
The number of approved government employees in Sindh is 723,571 out of which 503,972 employees are currently employed. They have to be paid more than Rs3 trillion in salaries annually. The education department in Sindh has 192,367 employees, the health department has 69,452 employees, while Sindh police have 135,760 employees. The number of pensioners in Sindh is 211,465 to whom the government has to pay more than Rs1 trillion annually. The number of employees belonging to autonomous government agencies in Sindh is 67,634, while only 45,814 employees are working in them, who have to be paid more than Rs32.60 billion in salaries each year.
As for Balochistan, the number of approved posts for government employees is 297,452, out of which only 232,172 employees are currently working for the government. They have to be paid more than Rs125 billion annually. At present, 61,976 people are working for the Balochistan education department, 28,241 for the health department, and 35,734 for the police force. The number of government retired pensioners in Balochistan is 76,337 to whom more than Rs30.23 billion have to be paid each year.
Sources said that the four provinces are working with a lesser number of employees as opposed to their approved posts to reduce the financial burden. Under the current situation, new employees are not being recruited to replace the retiring employees either. However, each province has maintained the minimum number of employees in each department to keep running its administrative affairs.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 2nd, 2020.
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