SHC issues notices over plea against pay cuts of highway and motorway police

The Sindh High Court has issued notices to the federal finance and communication ministries, and the national highway and motorway police on a petition against reductions in salaries and the withdrawal of allowances for its employees.

The petitioners, who were employees of the motorway police, said every national highway and motorway police official drew his salary and the subsequent allowances equal to one basic pay and a daily allowance for 20 days a month in light of a summary sanctioned by the then prime minister in 1997.

They said the federal government systematically initiated the process of reduction in the pay of its employees, first in 2010 by freezing the allowance equal to one basic pay and then cutting it by one half in 2017, followed by the freezing of the daily allowance.

They said that contrary to the pay packages of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), each one of which, like the national highway and motorway police, came under the umbrella of the federal government, had been increased in an unprecedented manner. As a result, the difference between the pay of a national highway and motorway police (NHMP) inspector and that of a NAB inspector, for example, had increased to Rs80,000, they maintained.

They submitted that the officers of the NHMP were being alienated through financial injustices, which they felt was inflicted on them in disregard to their honest and courteous professional working. They added that such a decision would only result in a despairing and demoralising effect on the minds of hardworking honest officers.

The NHMP employees requested the court to declare that reductions in their salaries and allowance illegal, and to direct the federal government to release their salaries and allowances. The court, after the preliminary hearing of the petition, issued notices to the respondents and called their comments.