Pay and pension anomalies

Around 26 departments are getting 50% to 100% higher than the standard pay for rendering ‘extraordinary services’

The pay and pension structure of civil servants is said to have anomalies that create ill-feeling among the government employees. For long, there have been calls to correct the inherent wrongs in the compensation packages of various federal and provincial government departments. The PTI government recently set up a high-powered commission to suggest measures aimed at reforming the pay structure to the satisfaction of all. The move comes at a time when the government is facing pressure to increase the salaries by at least 100-150% and end discrimination in pays of various government departments.

There are around 26 civilian and military departments that are getting 50% to 100% higher than the standard pay packages for rendering ‘extraordinary services’. The federal government also gave special allowances to FIA and NAB that created unease among the employees of the Pakistan Secretariat — the seat of federal bureaucracy. An official working in the Pak Secretariat Islamabad is drawing less salary than a person serving in a provincial capital. The federal government’s pay structure has not remained lucrative after two provincial governments approved additional allowances of up to 150%. In the last high-powered board meeting, which was held to promote officers from Grade-21 to 22, the board did not promote those officers who were eligible but had not served in the federal government aimed at forcing them to leave their lucrative positions. The scope of the commission includes federal and provincial civil servants, other government servants, civilians paid from defence budget, all armed forces, civil armed forces and all employees of the public-sector enterprises. The commission began its exhaustive work on Thursday.

The finance ministry faces growing burden of salaries and pensions. Out of the Rs470 billion earmarked for pensions in the current fiscal year, an amount of Rs369 billion is for military pensions. There is also a need to set up a pension fund as currently the pensions are paid from the budget, which is unsustainable.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2020.

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