Officers ‘deprived of executive allowance’ demand govt fulfil its commitment

ISLAMABAD: Amid the possibility of granting approval by the federal cabinet for provision of 100 per cent executive allowance (EA) across the board for all 2,300 officers of the Federal Secretariat in its meeting, scheduled for Tuesday (today), the deprived officers reminded the government on Monday to fulfil its commitment.

“The delay in issuance of notification for provision of executive allowance has aggravated desperation among the deprived officers of Federal Secretariat,” said the joint action committee of the deprived officers in a statement.

The government has decided in principle that the rate of EA would be reduced from 150 to 100 per cent and it would be provided to all officers working in the Federal Secretariat.Earlier, the EA of 150 per cent was enjoyed by officers of the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) and Office Management Group (OMG). The officers belonging to OMG made an effort to raise their voices in front of the Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar for reducing the EA from 150 to 100 per cent, but the minister totally rejected their demands by declaring it totally unjustified.

However, the aggrieved officers belonging to the Economist Group, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting stated that despite an announcement by the finance minister in a recent press conference, the delay in a notification for the grant of executive allowance to the deprived officers of the Federal Secretariat had aggravated the desperation and demotivation of the officers.

The federal cabinet, in its meeting held on June 10, 2022 approved executive allowance for officers (BS-17 to 22) of the Federal Secretariat. However, Finance Division, vide its notification dated July 19, 2022, granted the EA to only two service groups.

All the deprived officers observed a pen-down strike and staged a protest in front of the Finance Division. Subsequently, the finance minister admitted personally in the press conference that the decision of granting EA @ 150pc of basic pay to only two service groups was wrong and discriminatory. He assured equal treatment in this case, but the matter still remains unresolved despite lapse of considerable time.