The country's defense minister, Khawaja Asif, started the controversy on Wednesday as he decried a phenomenal raise in the salaries and allowances of the custodians of the upper and lower houses of parliament.
"The massive increase in the salaries and financial perks of the (National Assembly) speaker, deputy speaker, Senate chairperson and deputy chairperson falls under the category of financial obscenity," Asif said in a post on X.
"Please keep the life of the common man in mind - our honour and dignity are all owed to him (the common man)," the minister who belongs to the ruling PML-N added.
A report citing sources said Senate Chairman Yousaf Raza Gillani, who belongs to the PPP, presided over a meeting of the House Finance Committee a few months back to approve a phenomenal raise in his own salary as well as that of the deputy chairman, Sardar Syedaal Khan Nasar, who belong to the PML-N
Similarly, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq of the PML-N chaired a meeting of the NA's House Finance Committee to "quietly" greenlight a raise in his own salary and that of the NA deputy speaker, a post held by PPP's Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah.
After these approvals, the salary and allowances received by each of the parliamentary officials increased from a little more than Rs200,000 to around Rs2 million. This controversy whipped up a storm with the prime minister taking notice and ordering an inquiry.
The National Assembly and Senate secretariat, however, later denied reports that the custodians of the upper and lower houses approved this increase on their own, claiming that only the PM and his cabinet have the authority to approve such raises and the government approved this raise.
A gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs on May 29 for the increase in salaries of the NA speaker and the deputy speaker and the Senate chairman and deputy chairman also came to the fore on Thursday.
According to this notification, amendments had been made to the Salaries and Allowances Act of the Speaker and Senate Chairman, while discretionary allowances had also been increased by 50%.
Interestingly, the government has also proposed an increase in salaries for members of parliament and the federal cabinet in the new budget. According to the budget documents, an allocation of Rs16.29 billion has been proposed for the National Assembly and Rs9.05 billion for the Senate.
According to the details obtained by The Express Tribune, the Chief Justice of Pakistan's gross salary is Rs2,815,387 while the gross salary of each Supreme Court judge is Rs2,747,361.
The chief justices of high courts receive a gross salary of Rs2,653,418 while the total salary of each of the high court judges is Rs2,606,000.
The gross salary of a federal secretary is Rs818,000, while a chief secretary gets Rs1,401,000. The salary of an inspector general of police is Rs1,045,000 while each member of the National Assembly and Senate receives a gross salary of Rs705,000.
In the proposed budget, Rs5.08 billion has been allocated for salaries and allowances of the MNAs — Rs2.58 billion specifically for salaries, Rs2.5 billion for travel expenses, Rs1.24 billion for the allowances of standing committee chairpersons, and Rs393.4 million for salaries and allowances of the NA speaker and deputy speaker.
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