A tale of increment

Last week, parliamentarians were awarded a 150 percent increase in their salaries. This decision has caused dissatisfaction among the people of the country. On one hand, the government has approved an enormous increment in the basic salary of parliamentarians while on the other hand; the finance minister of the country reduced the profit rates of the National Saving Scheme to half. Behbood Saving Certificates and Pensioners Benefit Account are the lifeline of retired employees. A decrease in profit rates has affected a large number of people. In the same way, the rate of EOBI pensions is no secret. Senior citizens of the country are being given a nominal amount for their services towards the growth of the country. The widening disparity between the two payments, namely salary of parliamentarians and pension/other benefits of senior citizen, is saddening.

It has been observed that a lot of members of parliament are absent from parliamentary sessions. In this context, an increment in the basic salary of a ‘selected class’ is discouraging for the people of the country who work quite hard but earn only a small amount of income.

Hasnain Akhtar

Rawalpindi