Punjab govt set to announce 50% pay raise for govt employees

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

Salman Shah says rulers of province were left with no other option

By Shabbir Sarwar

LAHORE: Succumbing to public pressure, the Punjab government on Friday decided to give a 50 percent salary raise and increase the pensions and medical allowances to over one million public sector employees.

The provincial government will have to bear an additional Rs 48 billion in expenses, as it is allocating Rs 252 billion for this budgetary head against last year’s Rs 204 billion, sources told Daily Times.

A Finance Ministry official, requesting anonymity, said that the ministry had received a directive from the Punjab high-ups to prepare documents to announce a 50 percent pay raise for public sector employees in the province. He said the government would also propose fixing minimum monthly wages at Rs 8,000 for all employees, including those working in the private sector. A mechanism for this decision’s implementation is also being prepared, he added.

No option: Salman Shah, former federal finance adviser, told Daily Times that the Punjab government had been left with no other option but to implement the federal government’s decision regarding pay raises. “If the Punjab government will not announce a 50 percent salary raise, the employees’ unions will intensify their protests,” Shah said, adding that inflation and dearness have increased by more than 100 percent during the current fiscal year and the employees deserved a 100 percent pay raise.

“The idea of giving a 25 percent salary raise is not totally unjustified, however, the Punjab government and in fact all provincial governments will have to announce at least a 50 percent pay raise,” he said.

When asked if this was a political decision as workers had started protesting against National Assembly Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar, Shah said that although it was a moral obligation to follow the federal government’s decision, but the Punjab government’s decision could be chalked up to public pressure.

Separately, Punjab government spokesman Senator Pervaiz Rasheed said the government had faced no problems in paying the salaries for the months of May and June. “The PML-N is not against a pay raise, as the Punjab government had already increased the salaries of judges and policemen. We have only explained that the federal government should have told the provinces in advance because we had finalised our budget and now we have to get back the budget copies from the printing press and reschedule them,” the senator said.