Strangely, the government has found this time, of all times, an opportune one for proposing a 10 percent increase in salaries of members of parliament and four constitutional position holders even though the prime minister had himself earlier taken the position of not giving additional monetary benefits to what is after all an already pretty privileged class. Yet it turns out that Prime Minister Imran Khan, in his capacity as minister in charge of parliamentary affairs, has green-lighted the summary for a 10pc increase in salaries for cabinet’s approval. If the sitting government still thinks that the people of the land would appreciate such moves, especially as whatever economic growth has returned since the initial wave of lockdowns has left pretty much of the working class behind and most of them continue to struggle with rising prices and sticky wages, then it just does not have its finger on the pulse of the masses. Just the other day people got to learn that this government, which has always talked about cutting unnecessary privileges as well as costs, clandestinely sneaked a provision into the budget which allows parliamentarians to avail dozens of business class tickets every year for themselves, their families, and one friend. And now this. That the government expects this country’s struggling taxpayers to pay for the elite’s privileges is clear enough, but how it expects to manage public expectations and sentiment is not so clear just yet. This was, after all, the government that stopped serving biscuits with tea at official meetings, and sold of the PM House’s cows, etc, to save public money, but it seems to have no qualms about squeezing whatever it takes from the people to serve its own blue-eyed that dominate the country’s corridors of power. The government might, therefore, want to reconsider such decisions. The economy is better than a year ago, but it still needs to take along a very big chunk of the working class whose fortunes haven’t quite yet recovered. And with the election not very far away, it’s not a good time to risk upsetting people with gimmicks meant to satisfy the already privileged anyway. *