Secretariat employees await for executive allowance

ISLAMABAD: The government notified a raise in salaries and pensions for public sector employees, however, a notification for executive allowance for Pakistan Secretariat employees, approved by the cabinet, is yet to be issued.

The federal cabinet approved executive allowance of 150 percent of basic pay that top bureaucrats justified saying federal secretariat officials were getting lesser than all provinces.

Officials in federal ministries at Pak Secretariat at levels of deputy secretary to additional secretary level were not willing to serve at federal levels since salary could be termed as peanuts, they added.

When federal minister for Finance Miftah Ismail was contacted on Saturday, he said the ministry was working on it and the notification would be issued. Some official sources said the Finance ministry was working on issuing some clarification.

Official minutes of the federal cabinet available with the scribe showed the executive allowance would be granted to officers working in the federal secretariat, president secretariat, prime minister’s office, and ICT field administration in BPS-17 to BPS-22 at a rate of 1.5 times of the basic pay with effect from July 1, 2022.

“This will be granted in line with the allowance granted by all the provincial governments,” the minutes of the federal cabinet meeting held on June 10, 2022 on eve of the budget released recently read out.