Price hike: Advocate general requests doubling fuel allowance

LAHORE:

The office of the Advocate General Punjab (AG) has requested the government to revise the fuel allowance for its officers, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The AG requested that the allowance be fixed at Rs20,000 for each officer. The allowance is presently Rs10,000 per officer.

In 2006, the Law and Parliamentary Affairs Department (LPAD), in its notification of terms and conditions of AG officials, fixed Rs10,000 as fuel allowance for officers who were not provided staff cars. The officers who had been provided staff cars got 150-175 litres of free petrol on their entitlement.

On the AG’s request, the LPAD has moved a summary to the Finance Department requesting a revision of fuel allowance due to the hike in prices of petroleum products. The LPAD also requested that officials should be allowed to use the fuel allowance for private vehicles.

An official of the Finance Department said that the request for using official fuel in private vehicles could not be entertained as it was impractical. “The fuel is only to be used in staff cars for official duty,” he said.

According to the budget book, 22 additional advocates and 45 assistant advocates, who are entitled to fuel allowance or staff cars, are employed at the AG’s office.

An LPAD official said that the summary had been initiated on the request of the additional advocate general, who was involved in a court case disputing his appointment. 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2013.