Acting President and Senate Chairperson Sadiq Sanjrani issued an order on Tuesday notifying an increase of 20% in the monthly salaries of Supreme Court judges.
A spokesperson of the law ministry said that the monthly salary of the chief justice of Pakistan has been increased to Rs1.2 million while the monthly salary of other SC judges has been raised to Rs1.1m.
The changes are to come into effect immediately with the pay raise being applicable from the current month onwards, states the order.
A similar order issued by President Dr Arif Alvi in June 2022, listed the CJP’s monthly salary at Rs1,024,324 and that of other apex court judges at Rs967,636. This marks an increase of around Rs2,04,865 in the former’s salary.
The acting president’s order mentions that the previous order was hereby repealed.
This development comes at the heels of a sitting of the upper house during which legislation proposing an increase in the perks and privileges of senators, including the Senate chairperson and deputy chairperson was met with criticism.
Since assuming additional responsibilities after President Alvi departed for Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj, acting president and Senator Sanjrani has introduced and amended various legislations.
These include an amendment to an ordinance that governs the country’s top graft buster, National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Read Sanjrani offers to resign, present himself for accountability
Replacing the National Accountability Ordinance of 1999, the recently passed National Accountability (Amendment) Ordinance 2023 gives unprecedented powers to the watchdog’s chairman, allowing him to issue arrest warrants for individuals who refuse to cooperate in investigations.
Under the amended NAB law, arrested suspects can now be held in custody for up to 30 days, a significant increase from the previous 14-day limit. Sources told The Express Tribune that the Ministry of Law and Justice drafted the proposed amendments, which were later approved by the federal cabinet.
Prior to that, Sanjrani signed two bills, namely the amended Finance Bill 2023-24 and the Elections (Amendment) Bill 2023, into law. The former aided the government in meeting terms dictated by the International Monetary Fund as it scrambled to secure funds before the programme expired while the latter limited disqualification of lawmakers to five years in retrospective effect besides empowering the Election Commission of Pakistan to announce election dates unilaterally, bypassing the president’s consultation.
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