Unfair pay

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has noted that the salary structure of public servants in all categories has become badly distorted. The PAC Chairman, Nadeem Afzal Chan, described the existing situation as “illegal” and “discriminatory”. He also noted that it amounted to a violation of the Constitution and needed to be sorted out, given the discrepancies and injustices created. The PAC, during a hearing — at which officials from the finance ministry and other departments were also present — made special reference to the “take home” amounts awarded to army men and judges far in excess of the scales set out. While Chan commented that additional allowances were valid in the case of military personnel posted at Siachen, given the hardships they faced, such additional amounts should not have been drawn by others.

The findings that emerged during the hearing were interesting — especially so since we hear so little of what goes on in the guarded realm of the judiciary and the military. Army personnel are in some cases pocketing 180 per cent over and above their pay scale. The chief justice of Pakistan’s take-home salary stands at Rs773,328, in addition to all kinds of other perks. The employees of the Supreme Court and high courts also put far more into their bank accounts than a civil servant does, as do those working at the presidency and the prime ministerial secretariat. FBR employees also earn more.

As we learnt from the hearing, the time when the salaries of a judge, a grade 22 civil servant and a lieutenant general were about the same has now gone. Today, a judge is taking around Rs750,000, a lieutenant general Rs375,000, while a civil servant must be content with some Rs250,000. Finance ministry officials confirm the discrepancy. The Planning Commission suggests that it is the task of the establishment division and the human rights division to sort out the mess. It is obviously essential they do so, given the injustice that exists, creating a dangerous imbalance in the system.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2013.