ISLAMABAD: Senator Irfanul Haq Siddiqui of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz on Friday said a 15 percent uniform increase in the salaries of both low and high ranking government employees in the federal budget was unjustified.
Talking to media persons here outside the Parliament House, he observed that the salaries of junior employees should be raised at higher ratios than those of the senior officers.The salary rise at flat rate benefited the high officials the most, who though were already heavily paid.
He opined that instead of flat 15 percent rise, salaries of the employees should be raised at different ratios such as 50 percent for employees of grade 1 to 10, 20 percent for grade 11 to 15, 10 percent for grade 16 to 18, and 5 percent for grade 19 and above.
A 15% increase in the salaries of government employees was a good move, but in my opinion it was unfair that a grade 1 employee was treated equal with a grade 22 officer, he reiterated.
He said a low grade employee earning Rs. 30,000 basic salary would get rise of only Rs 4,500, while an officer with Rs 100,000 basic salary would get an increase of Rs. 15,000, which would apparently further widen the gap between the rich and the poor.
Senator Siddiqui said he had also given suggestions in that regard in his budget speech.
He had talked with Minister of State for Finance Ayesha Ghous Pasha on the salary disparity issue and would send his proposals in writing to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
He said the allocation in the budget might not be changed by the government, but the employees salaries should be enhanced as per his proposal.
Senator Siddiqui blamed the last Imran Khan led government for price hike in country. The government was not focusing on politics, as it was trying to steer the country out of economic crisis.
To a question, he said the government had presented a balanced budget in very difficult circumstances.
