Govt to cut president, PM’s perks

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to slash perks and privileges of the president and prime minister, and legislation in this regard is in the process. The legislative business could not be done due to lack of quorum in the National Assembly for the second consecutive day on Thursday.

The government was prepared to introduce two separate bills in the House pertaining to increase in salaries and allowances of the president and the prime minister. The same bills including the President’s Salary, Allowances and Privilege Act 2020 and Prime Minister’s Salary, Allowances and Privilege Act, 2020 also existed on order of the day for Wednesday when issue of lack of quorum was raised by the opposition members.

At the outset of proceedings on Thursday, the PML-N member Murtaza Javed Abbasi pointed out lack of quorum after the deputy speaker did allow the opposition members to speak on points of order. “I will give floor to you at end of the question hour,” the deputy speaker said.

The opposition members staged walkout from the House as protest against not getting the floor. Murtaza Javed Abbasi pointed out lack of quorum. The chair suspended proceedings for 30 minutes on finding lack of quorum in the House.

The government, however, failed to complete quorum. The chair prorogued the session which is scheduled to continue till today (Friday). The government also fell short of passage of two bills including the Privatisation Commission (Amendment) Bill 2020 and the Emigration (Amendment) Bill 2020.

President Arif Alvi is currently receiving Rs846,550 as monthly salary. The salary of the president, which was Rs80,000 per month, was hiked by 1,000 percent to Rs846,550 by last regime of the PML-N through an Act of the Parliament. The PTI government also approved supplementary grant of Rs9.3 million to pay salary to President Arif Alvi for the fiscal year 2018-2019.

The gross salary of Prime Minister Imran Khan is Rs201,574 which is reduced to Rs196,979 after deduction of taxes and GP Fund. The prime minister during a meeting with businessmen earlier this year had said his salary is not sufficient to meet even his household expenses.