President approves bailout package for PTDC

RAWALPINDI: President Mamnoon Hussain has approved Rs1.5 billion bailout package for the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) and its employees who have not been receiving their monthly salaries for more than four years.

The package was announced by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after coming into power but his orders were not complied with till now.

The president approved the package after it was approved by newly appointed legal adviser to the president Justice (retd) Ejaz Chaudhry.According to a document of the Finance Ministry, of the Rs1.5 billion package, an amount of Rs916 million had been earmarked for outstanding salaries of regular employees, Rs234 million for employees opting for the voluntary separation or golden handshake schemes, Rs140.4 million for outstanding liabilities of regular employees and Rs210 million for up-gradation and revamping of PTDC hotels and motels.With the approval of the package, it is believed that the government will incorporate it in the forthcoming federal budget for 2016-17.

According to the official, the legal adviser to the president had upheld a decision of the Federal Ombudsman which had been announced in November last year and approved the package last week while giving decision on an appeal filed by the Cabinet Division which had stuck to its stance that the PTDC employees did not fall in the category of government servants and thus the issue did not come in the purview of the Federal Ombudsman.

The legal adviser had also summoned officials of the Cabinet Division and the Finance Ministry and asked them about their condition and reaction “if you did not receive salary for more than two years”.

The government in May 2014 proposed a Rs1.5 billion bailout package for the PTDC, its employees and revival of the crippling organisation.The number of employees working with the PTDC are said to be over 1,000, including 400 regular and 600 contractual employees. The number of daily wage employees associated with motels and resorts are said to be in thousands.

Like several other organisations, the PTDC was devolved to provinces under the 18th Amendment in 2013 and since then the federal government and provinces have been fighting for the ownership of trillions of rupees’ assets (hotels/hotels and resorts) of the PTDC in the provinces.

“In the tug of war, the government forgot employees and stopped their salary without realising how families of the employees would survive and how their kitchens would run, how their children would go to schools or other educational institutions,” Riaz Ahmed, a PTDC employee said.Owing to non-payment of salaries, hundreds of families have been living in miserable condition.