PM urges top companies to raise salaries of employees

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday once again made an appeal to the top corporations in Pakistan to increase the salaries of their employees after registering a record profit worth Rs950 billion in 2021.

Taking to Twitter, the prime minister appreciated Serene Air for responding to his call and making an announcement of a 44 per cent pay rise for its low-paid employees and 15-25% for others.

“I appreciate Serene Air’s AVM Safdar (R) for responding to my call & announcing pay rise of 44% for low paid employees & 15-25% for other employees," the premier wrote on his official handle.

He urged the top 100 corporations in the country, who made record profits of Rs950 billion last year, to also raise the salaries of their employees.

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Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib also thanked the companies for increasing the salaries of their workers on the appeal of PM Imran.

“Despite the effects of coronavirus pandemic, best economic policies of Prime Minister Imran have started yielding results,” he said in a tweet.

The minister said that the businesses that had earned profits were responding to the prime minister’s call and increasing the salaries of their workers.

He also extended gratitude to Serene Airline for raising the salaries of their workers.

On Wednesday, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin said that despite four big crises the country had to face during the past three-and-half years, the economy was heading in the right direction as it grew by 5.37 per cent during the fiscal year 2020-21 and was expected to grow by 5% during the current year.

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“This (growth) was not expected by anybody but it happened,” the federal minister said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad, adding that all sectors of the economy including manufacturing, agriculture and services witnessed growth during the period.

He said that earlier the growth for the last year was expected to hover around 3.94%, but since the large scale manufacturing witnessed considerable growth in June 2021, it jacked up overall growth figures for the year.

He expressed the hope that growth during the current year was expected at 5 per cent as overall revenue collection had witnessed tremendous growth, with electricity utilisation increasing by 13 per cent exports on the rise and bumper crops expected.