No proposal for raising salaries in next budget

[LRE]

Wednesday, May 06, 2009
By Mehtab Haider

ISLAMABAD: The Pay and Pension Commission on Tuesday decided that it would not recommend an interim report to the government for raising salaries and pension of public sector employees in the next budget 2009-10 as the next meeting of the Commission was scheduled for July 6.

“We will not prepare any interim report for the next budget 2009-10. The next meeting of the Pay and Pension Commission will be held on July 6, 2009 because all officials both at the federal and provincial levels will now be busy for the next budget preparations,” Chairman of the Commission Dr Ishrat Hussain told reporters after the meeting at Q Block on Tuesday.

However, according to Terms of Reference (ToRs) devised by the Finance Ministry’s Regulation Wing for the Pay and Pension Commission, a copy of which is available with the scribe states, “the Commission may, if so desired by the government, make interim recommendations in respect of such matters, which in its opinion, can be disposed of, pending the submission of its final report.”

Referring to ToRs notified by the Finance Ministry when the Chairman Pay and Pension Commission was asked about any plan for coming up with its interim recommendations before the next budget, he categorically stated that there was no plan to present any recommendations before the upcoming budget 2009-10.

The next meeting of the Commission will be held on July 6, 2009, clearly showing no intention even to discuss this issue, he maintained.

He said that the Commission in its maiden day-long session on Tuesday decided to update the previous reports by identifying missing links in this regard. Both the federal and provincial secretaries were directed to come up with relevant data before the Commission, he maintained.

Regarding proposal for doubling the salaries of employees in Finance and Planning Divisions as well as in the Fedral Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) he concluded that no such proposal came under discussion at this forum.

The hopes of around 3.4 million employees of public sector dashed to the ground as they were expecting some interim recommendation from the Commission, which can become part of their basic pay structure in order to mitigate their rising woes in the wake of sky rocketing inflationary pressures.

Now the government may announce adhoc relief keeping in view its fiscal space with the promise to adjust it in the basic pay structure when the Commission will finalize its recommendation after six months.

Another member of the Pay and Pension Commission told this scribe that they asked the federal as well as provincial secretaries to come up with exact number of employees and cost involved for monetising the perks and privileges of the public sector employees in the next meeting of the Commission.

The provincial governments, the official said, pressed upon the centre to provide them additional resources if the federal government provided any adhoc relief to its employees by raising salaries and pensions in the next budget.

“We have told the federal government about existing financial crunch being faced by provincial governments and they were not able to grant adhoc relief to their employees,” a provincial finance secretary told this scribe on the condition of anonymity.

Another federal secretary told this scribe that the meeting did not discuss any interim recommendations. Pakistan’s public sector has a sanctioned staff of over 3.4 million persons. Civilian Work Force excluding Armed Forces, consists of 2.8 million which is divided as autonomous bodies 390,000, federal government, 376,000, civilian paid out of defense 162,000, Punjab government 902,000, Sindh government 478,000, NWFP 300,000 and Balochistan 166,000.

http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=175983