Daily Times

Former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani on Monday condemned the formation of an eight-member committee for the revision of existing or grant of new allowances to government servants, calling it “double standards on the part of the finance minister”.

Despite a shortfall in revenue collection, the government has started working on offering lucrative allowances to its employees, in addition to a salary increase of up to 25 per cent, effective from July 1, 2024.

A previous media report stated that the PM Office and the Ministry of Finance had been receiving regular representations from various stakeholders and employee groups, seeking additional compensation, particularly following the recent significant increases in salaries and allowances for judges.

As a result, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif constituted an eight-member ‘special committee’ for “revision of existing or grant of new allowances to government servants” during the current financial year.

Led by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, the committee includes an overwhelming representation of the intended beneficiaries. It comprises the secretaries for finance, cabinet, establishment division, defence, and interior, as well as the minister for economic affairs, who was a batch mate to many grade 21 officers, and the minister of state for finance and revenue.

In a statement released today, Rabbani said that the committee comprised members who were “direct beneficiaries, violating the principle of not being a judge in one’s own cause”.

“It will be recalled, the finance minister, a week past, spoke about revisiting the NFC Award, amounting to a rollback of fiscal devolution given by the 18th Amendment,” the statement read, adding that this amounted to “double standards on the part of the finance minister”.

Under the 7th National Finance Commis­sion (NFC) award, the share of Provinces in vertical distribution had increased from 49pc to 56pc during 2010-11 and 57.5pc during the remaining years of the Award. It has been a source of contention between the Centre and the provinces.

The traditional population-based criteria for the horizontal distribution of resources amongst the provinces had been changed to a multiple-criteria formula.

“The federal government wants to reduce the share of the Provinces in the NFC, to sustain the lavish lifestyle of its bureaucracy,” Rabbani wrote, adding that the provinces would not allow a violation of the 1973 Constitution by “reallocating the provincial share in the NFC Award”.