Islamabad:
Despite large allegations of austerity and belt belt by the government led by PML-N, the federal cabinet approved a summary to increase the wages of ministers, ministers of the state and advisers, massively increasing their salary to Rs519,000 per month.
The increase occurred while the government recognized the financial pressure on the salaried class due to the taxation which, according to the statistics provided for in the lower chamber of the Parliament, was heavy.
According to sources, the increase is equivalent to an amazing bump of 188%, giving ministers a beautiful windfall at a time when ordinary citizens are invited to tighten their belts due to excessive taxes.
Development comes two months after the National Assembly Finance Committee approved an increase in wages and compensation for MNA and Senators, which conforms them to federal secretaries.
The committee, chaired by President Ayaz Sadiq, had unanimously approved the increase in parliamentarians’s wages.
In a recent past, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had more than doubled the size of the federal cabinet, passing its members from 21 to 43 years old, including 30 federal ministers, nine state ministers and four advisers.
New people named also include four special assistants to the Prime Minister, which means that the overall size of the Prime Minister’s team is now 51 members, including eight SAPM.
According to article 92 of the Constitution, no more than a quarter of the state’s federal ministers and ministers cannot come from the Senate, and the total size of the cabinet cannot exceed 11% of total parliamentary membership.
Currently, the National Assembly and the Senate have respectively 336 and 96 members, totaling 432. Having a heavy federal cabinet is not a new phenomenon in the country, because almost all the previous regimes have said they would keep its size small, but then wrapped their cabinets.
Ironically, the Minister of State with railways Bilal Azhar Kayani told the National Assembly on Friday that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had repeatedly recognized the issue of the excessive tax burden to employees.
However, due to the country’s fragile economic situation, immediate relief was not possible. “We hope to reach a position soon where surveys can be provided,” added Kayani, without specifying a delay.
