Proposals: G-B Assembly seeks increase in salaries

Committee analyses data from various provinces to recommend increase.

GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly has unanimously passed a bill that seeks a pay increase and other privileges for its members.

The bill was tabled in the house by Parliamentary Secretary for Law Advocate Aurangzeb Khan on Friday concluding the fifth day
of proceedings.

“The bill was tabled in the legislative assembly and will be implemented after the Cabinet approves it,” a lawmaker told The Express Tribune on Saturday after the assembly adopted the bill.

According to the bill, salaries for the G-B CM and assembly speaker should be increased to Rs0.4 million. Meanwhile, the salary of the deputy speaker should be increased to Rs0.376 million and ministers should earn Rs0.352 million.

The bill also states that assembly members should be entitled to Rs0.19 million. Recommendations for salary increase were given by a committee comprising lawmakers who analysed data from other provinces before presenting the bill in the house.

With this bill CM’s basic pay, without any bonuses, will increase from Rs70,000 to Rs250,000 while speaker’s basic pay will increase from Rs52,550 to Rs120,000. All lawmakers, except the CM, were listed for entitlement to increased house rent, medical allowance and mobile expenses in the newly introduced bill.

“This increase is half of what our counterparts are getting in the other provinces,” said Deputy Speaker Jafarullah Khan. “We have drafted the bill keeping our limited resources in mind.”

According to Muhammad Shafi, a lawmaker, “The increase in our salaries is insufficient as it does not even match the level being enjoyed by assembly members in other provinces.” He added that their salaries should at least be at par with those paid in various provinces in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2015.