ISLAMABAD: Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar Wednesday assured protesting officers that the principle of equity would be ensured by addressing their demand for grant of 150 per cent executive allowance to over 700 officers in one week. The protesters have been deprived of the incentive since the announcement of the 2022-23 budget.
By ending discrimination, the government would now either abolish the executive allowance of 150 per cent for mighty District Management Group (DMG) members and the Secretariat groups, or grant the allowance to the Economist group, technical cadre of economic ministries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. The decision to this effect would be made by Dec 15, 2022. The finance minister sought time to work out modalities for sharing it with PM Shehbaz Sharif and then the government would make a decision.
The aggrieved officers Wednesday decided to postpone their pen-down strike and protest till Dec 15, 2022, after getting assurances from the finance minister.
Four representatives of protesting officers met the finance minister and apprised him of officers’ grievances. Ishaq Dar initially argued that the government could not afford provision of 150 per cent executive allowance for all employees, as it might cost it Rs150 billion. The aggrieved officers told him that they were demanding 150pc executive allowance for Federal Secretariat employees as it would cost only Rs750 million if Rs100,000 additional allowance was provided to around 600 to 700 officers belonging to BS-17 to BS-22.
In a joint resolution, the officers told Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar that the federal cabinet approved a grant of executive allowance to all officers of BS-17 and above working in the Federal Secretariat vide its decision of 10-06-2022. However, the Finance Division partially implemented the cabinet decision and granted the said allowance to only specific groups. Resultantly, aggrieved officers in every ministry/division started agitation at the ministry level. In response, the secretary and ministry of each ministry has written to PM Shehbaz Sharif, finance minister and secretary to extend the executive allowance to remaining officers working in the Federal Secretariat. But no such relief had been extended to the aggrieved officers to date, which resulted in frustration among the officers. This act is a clear-cut violation of Article 4, 25, 38(c) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, they claimed. The aggrieved officers of various ministries/ divisions joined hands and started a pen down strike for registering peaceful protest against the administration for the grant of executive allowance to all officers irrespective of their cadres by implementing the federal cabinet decision.
The officers shared a joint resolution with the finance minister, whereby it was stated that the federal cabinet approved a grant of executive allowance to all officers of BS-17 and above working in the Federal Secretariat vide its decision of 10-06-2022.