Bring uniformity in pay scales

DESPITE assurance by the Finance Ministry to give suitable raise to the government employees in the next fiscal year, the employees of Pak Secretariat are continuing their protest demanding substantial raise in their salaries as drawn by the employees of some other organizations including the NAB, the FIA and the Judiciary.
Undoubtedly, there are great distortions in the salary structure of different government departments and there is a need to bring uniformity in it as this discrimination is really causing great heart burning amongst the vast majority of government servants and also affecting their performance. In a landmark judgment just last month, Supreme Court remarked that the federal government cannot discriminate between its employees and directed the government to pay a 20 per cent Secretariat Allowance to all employees under federal government cadre. The prolonged protest is also affecting the routine work of different ministries. Especially the strike of the employees of Accounts General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) has been creating problems for various other government departments and release of their budget funds. In this scenario, it is important that the Finance Ministry sits with the association of the employees, listen to their grievances and meet their genuine demands. The fact of the matter is that the recent price hike has badly affected the salaried class making it difficult for them to pay the utility bills and the hefty school fee of their children. Since PM Imran Khan has always been seen speaking about justice, we expect that he will take notice of the situation and instruct the relevant authorities to end the discrepancies in the salary structure of different government departments. We understand that economic managers are also faced with the challenge of ballooning burden of pension amount. If the pension sector is run without reforms for a few years, the next looming crisis will be on the front of smooth pension payment to the retired employees. Thus, there is a need to evolve such a mechanism that ensures sustainability of the pension scheme.