KP lawmakers adopt novel way to raise salaries, perks

Seek allowances, discretionary grant equal to Balochistan MPAs

PESHAWAR: In an interesting move, members of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly have sought salaries and perks equal to that of the Balochistan Assembly members to automatically gain an increase of around 80 percent.

Both the treasury and opposition benches members on Monday signed a resolution which like previous financial years would be clandestinely and swiftly presented in the provincial assembly next month. The increase sought by the members would thus be included in the budget-II that is traditionally passed in a swift manner.

Soon after the signing of the resolution that proposed an exorbitant increase in practice and compensatory allowances (salaries) and perks bringing the wages of the lawmakers on a par with that of the Balochistan members, the provincial assembly secretariat worked out the budget for the next financial year incorporating the increased salaries and perks and submitted it to the Finance Department.

Sharing the details with The News, a well-placed source said the lawmakers’ move seeking increase in their salaries and allowances through a simple resolution was a violation of the Members Salaries and Allowances Act 1974.

He said the House should have amended the act incorporating the proposed increase in salaries and perks in a proper and lawful way.

About the lawmakers’ contention that they wanted to bring their perks on a par with those of the Balochistan Assembly members, he said, “the devil is in the details” because seemingly the humble demand of the members would lead to over 80 percent increase in their allowances and perks.

Each provincial assembly member will receive Rs 1.2 million as discretionary grant after the approval of the resolution. Such a grant isn’t being paid to them currently.

The budget document that proposed increase in salaries and perks of the members during the next financial year shows that the raise for about 90 MPAs (called voted side)would cost Rs127.656 million extra to the provincial exchequer.

The amount does not include the hefty salaries and allowances of the speaker, deputy speaker, ministers, advisors, special assistants and parliamentary secretaries.

The daily session allowance of an MPA would also be raised from the current Rs1,000 to Rs4,000, which a Balochistan Assembly member is getting presently.

The current per month salary of a member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly is Rs18,000 while that of a member of the Balochistan Assembly is Rs60,000.

After the proposed increase of Rs42,000 in the salary of the members, the enhanced salaries of 90 MPAs of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly would cost the provincial exchequer an additional amount of Rs 453.600 million.

Currently a member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly is getting Rs4,800 as utility allowance while in Balochistan Assembly a member collects Rs20,000 in this head. The per year utility allowance of a member of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly is likely to increase to Rs182,400 per annum.

Their house allowance will increase from Rs30,000 to Rs50,000, while their additional travel allowance would increase from Rs120,000 to Rs500,000.

The set of proposals presented in the resolution would only bring down the Sumptuary Allowance of the member from Rs10,000 to Rs6,000.

On the whole, the assembly member who is getting Rs91,800 in May 2016 will receive Rs165,000 per month from July 2016 after the passage of the resolution.Every MPA would receive Rs278.00 million as salary and perks during the next financial year.

The provincial assembly secretariat has already worked out its budgetary outlay for the voted side and submitted Rs160.310 million as the proposed budget for the salaries and perks of 90 of the 124 members of the assembly for the next financial year of 2016-17.