ISLAMABAD – A day after hundreds of government employees protested in the federal capital amid tear gas shelling, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government Thursday announced 25 percent ad-hoc increase in the salaries of the federal government employees from basic pay scale (BPS) 1 to 19.
The government said that the decision, which would come into effect from March 1, has been taken to the end huge disparity between the salaries of government employees and to provide relief to those who are low paid.
The announcement was made after successful talks of the government’s three-member special negotiation committee with the representatives of All Government Employees Grand Alliance (AGEGA)-Pakistan, followed by an approval of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
“The federal government has decided to give 25 percent (of the basic pay) ad-hoc relief to all federal government employees,” Defence Minister Pervez Khattak said this while addressing a news conference along with the representatives of the government employees.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan also accompanied him as all of them were part of the negotiation committee.
The government said that provinces are also being recommended for the similar pay raise. It also announced to release all arrested protestors and withdrawal of cases against them and said that an increase in salaries of government officers from grade 20 to 22 would be made in the next financial budget.
With the government’s decision, the protestors also called off the protest making the capital city relatively peaceful as only a day before, it was giving the look of a battle zone amid protests of the employees demanding pay raise.
In a country of over 220 million people, it is very rare that employees are given a pay raise during the financial year as this is usually allowed in the fiscal budget. Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government had not given such raise in the last budget for fiscal year 2020-21.
Before the announcement, the special committee constituted by PM signed an agreement with the representatives of government employees.
Later, the Ministry of Finance in a statement said that it, in accordance with the agreement, has agreed in principle to give “Disparity Reduction Allowance @ 25% of the basic pay of BPS-2017… to those civil employees in BPS (1-19) of the Federal Government (including employees of Federal Secretariat and attached departments) who have never been allowed additional salary equal to or more than 100% of the basic pay (whether frozen or not) or performance allowance.” It said that the raise would be effective from March 1, 2021.
“The posts (of federal government employees) from BPS 1 to16 or equivalent will be upgraded on the pattern of Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa” with effect from March 1, the Finance Division said. The grant of time-scale will also be considered for adoption on the same pattern in the next budget, it added.
It said that “Ad-hoc Relief” will also be made part of the basic salary with effect from July, 2021—the next budget.
“The provinces will be recommended for adoption of above (package) from their own resources,” the Finance Division said adding that a summary is being placed before the cabinet for final approval of the package.
The defence minister in the presser said that the federal and provincial government employees were demanding pay raise for the last one year on the ground that there was a huge disparity of up to 200 percent among salaries of different divisions, ministries, and constitutional and autonomous bodies. “On average, there is 60 percent difference among the salaries of employees of the federal government.” It has been decided that they would be given 40 percent increase out of the total 60 percent difference, he added.
Khattak said that they have also heard the grievances of unions of provincial governments’ employees and Prime Minister Imran Khan has talked to chief ministers of Punjab and KP and had directed them to resolve their issue of salaries while sitting with them. “We will give direction to provincial governments that we have taken these decisions and they should also deal with the disparity issue at provincial level.”
The defence minister said that a procedure for the performance-based time-scale promotion of federal government employees would also be set and a policy would be made. “The one who works hard should get more opportunities than the one who is lazy and doesn’t work hard”.
Khattak thanked all federal and provincial employees and their unions and apologized the other day’s incident of shelling by the police in Islamabad. He said that employees should have had some patience as the government was utilizing all its energies to resolve the matter. “We are apologetic about what happened yesterday as it should not have happened. Sometimes delays happen but it does not mean we are not working for you,” he said. He added that the PTI government would also resolve the issues of health workers of Punjab and KP.
State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan for taking keen interest to resolve the matter. “The other day was a bad day, otherwise employees remained peaceful throughout their movement,” he said. He said that past governments increased salaries but PM was going to bring basic changes in the salary structure of employees. “They are being upgraded and disparity (in their salaries) is being abolished,” he said and added, “There is much difference between the salaries of government employees, some are getting Rs 20,000 (per month) and others are getting Rs 80,000 (per month),”
The state minister said that PM Khan had come to end this disparity as he used to talk about one Pakistan and not the two. He warned the employees not to repeat incident of other day.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on his turn said the negotiations were successful with the cooperation of employees. “The matter has been resolved amicably,” he said and thanked the government workers. He said that the government would remain in touch with the employees in future and would not abandon them.
He also said that salaries of officers of grade 20 to 22 will be increased in next budget. “We will implement the remaining decisions (of agreement) in next budget.”
Replying about police facing shortage of anti-riots and safety gear, he said that a proposal is being presented before the cabinet meeting for special allocation of budget to army, police, FC, Rangers and all law enforcement agencies that come under his ministry to provide them with such equipment more.
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