Salaries of govt officials: how Pakistan and India stack up

KARACHI: The recent revision in the salaries of Pakistan’s top parliamentary leaders, including the speaker of the National Assembly and the chairperson of the Senate, has sparked debate in political and public circles.

While some critics, including incumbent defence minister and PML-N leader Khawaja Asif, have voiced concern over the scale of the increases, a comparative look at similar office holders in neighbouring India offers a broader regional perspective.

According to official figures, the monthly salary of the speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan now stands at Rs1.3 million, while the chairperson of the Senate receives the same amount. In India, their counterparts -- the Lok Sabha speaker and Rajya Sabha chairperson -- earn slightly higher, with monthly salaries of approximately Rs1.48 million and Rs1.32 million, respectively, when converted from Indian rupees (INR450,000 and INR400,000 respectively). One INR is equivalent to Rs3.3.

Other top constitutional office holders show varying trends. According to data available on the official website of the Cabinet Division, the president of Pakistan earns Rs846,550 per month, significantly lower than the president of India, who receives about Rs1.65 million (INR500,000), per the data shared by Indian media outlet ‘News18’. Similarly, India’s prime minister earns a basic salary of Rs165,068 (INR50,000) compared to Rs107,280 in Pakistan, according to several reports.

For members of parliament, however, the reverse is observed. Pakistani MPs receive Rs519,000 per month, which is higher than the Indian MPs’ pay of approximately Rs409,368 (INR124,000).

The government has not yet issued an official statement in response to the outrage, however a day after the federal budget was unveiled, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb defended the proposed salary increases.

“Consider when the salaries of ministers, ministers of state and parliamentarians were last revised. The last increase for cabinet ministers was in 2016,” Aurangzeb said during a press conference on Wednesday.

Similarly, back in March, when the Indian government okayed an increase in the salaries of MPs, the government defended its decision by saying that the salary revision “was based on a mechanism introduced in 2018 that linked MPs’ salaries to inflation with the aim of preventing arbitrary increases”.