ISLAMABAD: While the Punjab government and senior members of the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) are keeping a mum on the validity of controversial 150 percent raise in the salaries of a selected class of 1700 civil servants, a young PAS officer conveyed his anger to The News for highlighting the issue.
The officer, whose name is not being disclosed to save him from a possible unnecessary controversy, said that The News story on the subject was based on “hearsay”. The officer responded to The News story - “1700 civil servants in Punjab given 150pc raise in salary”- published on October 1.
Auditor General of Pakistan immediately took notice of The News story and assigned Accountant General Punjab to review the matter to ascertain the validity of the 150 percent pay raise (given to selected 1700 officers ignoring others) through an executive order, outside the approved budget and without consulting the Punjab assembly.
Without commenting on the merits of young PAS officer’s statement, this newspaper reproduces in the following his view for the interest of the readers in general and members of the civil service in particular:
“I hope this finds you in good health and best of mood. In the world of investigative journalism your name distinguishably comes among few at the top. You’ve earned yourself a reputation by endeavoring hard to convince the government of Pakistan running the affairs of the state on Islamic principles in true spirit.
Nobody else would know better than your good-self that stories based on hearsay and facts & stats filtered through prejudice never represent the reality and doesn’t qualify to be called investigative journalism until all stakeholders are taken on board to record their version. Without wasting your time I would come straight to the subject of my writing to you that’s –“1700 civil servants in Punjab given 150pc raise in salaries”. (Headline of The News story published last week)
There are different facets on which this story is not only wrong but extremely harmful to the efforts being made to ensure better service delivery and minimising corruption. Multitude of arguments/justifications are available to rebut the assertion that’s been made in the article but leaving all that apart I would just give you my personal example. I’m part of civil administration Lahore and working as Assistant Commissioner currently. I have five years of service to my credit.
I joined service back in 2014 by successfully making it to top 25 who were luckily chosen among 15,000 aspirants. Brief fact of the matter is that after five-year service and working in BPS-17 I’m drawing Rs115,000 salary including this alleged skyrocketing 150 percent increase. This figure of 11,5000 comprises basic pay, executive allowance, medical allowance, big city allowance, house allowance etc. I am married having responsibilities of a family. Own no house in district Lahore and currently living in a rented premises. In last four weeks, I have not even taken Sundays off to see my parents in my native town. Despite all these challenges, what I’m trying at best is to keep myself away from all the temptations and allurements that this service offers you every day in lieu of favours that you can offer using your official authority unethically/illegally. The writings like mentioned above are a clear attempt and playing in the hands of those who are bend on sabotaging all little efforts that are made towards mending this rotten system that has compromised esteemed values in the civil service consistently compelling officers to resort to secondary income to meet their basic needs.
So, I would humbly request you to labor a little bit more and make a comparison of salaries of officers in just five departments with the same length of service & pay scale. These departments include judiciary, NAB, health, engineering, BISP and police, and then rewrite this story that you’ve put up without taking any stakeholder on board. I would further request you to please suggest a suitable figure of salaries for attracting most competitive human resource/officers for civil administration who may lead a decent life with integrity and stay away from all the wrong financial temptations. If you can go a bit extra mile you may check the salaries that the corporate sector offers to its employees of our caliber and dedication. I can show you my personal record proving that I declined offers from the most prestigious financial institutions in Pakistan just to join civil service and make a difference. But these four years were a complete test of my integrity, patience and resilience because making a decent livelihood in mere Rs50,000 is not just difficult but near to impossible. I can give you a hundred examples of officers who never wanted to indulge in corruption but this cruel salary system in public sectors made them corrupt. You please check how a new comer to service would survive in hefty Rs3,4000 per month that we would get after joining the service in 2014.
I do hope in good faith that you would be kind enough to pay heed to my submissions and write a follow up edition of your story to make the things clearer and just for your vast readers!
With profound regards
Yours truly,
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