Re-employment of Retired army officers, judges defended
Aftab Ahmed
Law Minister Farogh Naseem has defended the Re-employment of Retired civil servants, army officers, judges pointing out the discussion on this subject will generate undue controversy.
The present government had also appointed retired army officers in different departments especially attached departments of the ministry of information technology and telecom who were drawing double benefits on account of salary and pensions.
The Minister for Science Technology Fawad Chaudhry had taken up the matter of re-employment of retired civil servants, army officers, and judges in a meeting of the cabinet.
He said that these retired officers were deriving dual benefits on account of pensions as well as salaries after re-employment.
However, the Law Minister, while clarifying the legal nuances of the issue, informed that officials receive pensionary benefits after rendering the pensionable service and entitlement of salary, after re-employment, whic is in accordance with the relevant law/rules, hence any discussion will generate undue controversy.
Increase in the salary of federal employees
Finance Division informed that Secretariat requires an upward revision salary in order to motivate and retain officers in the Federal Secretariat. Furthermore, there had been widespread protests by clerical staff against the disparity in salaries.
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Civilian employees who had never been granted an allowance equal to 100 percent of the basic pay work out to be 296,470, out of a total of 623,215 employees, or almost 48 percent.
The Federal Cabinet had also noted this disparity during the review of the budget strategy for FY 2020-21 and directed harmonization of salaries.
The government had formed a Pay and Pension Commission and was formulating recommendations for adoption with effect from July 1, 2021.
However, in view of the reasons, the government needs some form of immediate relief for those government servants who did not receive higher remuneration.
The government had granted a 25 per cent disparity Reduction Allowance. The financial Impact for this allowance was around Rs. 21 billion per annum.
Furthermore, the government will consider various ad-hoc relief allowances for the merger in the basic pay scales with effect from July 1, 2021.
During the discussion, the SAPM pointed out that the list of Organizations drawing extra allowance was not comprehensive, which should be reviewed and updated carefully.
Advisor to PM on CCIR informed pays of BS-20 to BS-22 officers also witnessed a decline due to revision in tax slabs and stressed to grant the salary relief to them as well, otherwise, officers may prefer serving with provincial governments and are less likely to work in the federal secretariat.
He further informed the Cabinet he headed the Pay and Pension Commission and recommended uniform pay scales but the then government did not accept it and had given 50% raise across the board.
He stated that CCIR recommended performance-related increments in pays, which should be implemented by the Establishment Division. The Finance Minister informed the House that senior officers will also get pay raise in the next year’s budget and the Pay & Pension Commission would be asked to give a detailed presentation to the Cabinet in this regard.
