ISLAMABAD: Federal government has decided to withdraw a decision to increase salaries of the government employees announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif soon after getting elected to the slot
PML-N leader Miftah Ismail, who is accepted to be Finance Advisor in the new government, confirmed the report but denied it was a U-turn.
Ismail justified the decision and said that since salaries of the federal government employees were raised a couple of months ago, the government will not raise them again.
He said that the salary issues will be considered in the next budget, while they have raised pensions of retired government employees.
Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar also commented on the retreat from the federal government and said that Imran Khan led government raised salaries by 35 percent last year and 15 percent this year.
After being elected, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a 10% increase in pension and and salaries and raised the minimum wage rate at Rs25,000 as part of economic relief measures for the masses.
A day earlier, Miftah Ismail said that the country’s economy was badly “damaged” during the tenure of the PTI-led government which he said piled the public debt to Rs.6,400 billion. Ismail accused the previous PTI government of making the lives of the masses miserable through “flawed” economic policies.
He said the fiscal deficit was hovering at around Rs5,600 billion and if supplementary grants of Rs800 billion were included, the total amount would reach Rs6,400. He said the illogical decisions by the previous government had resulted in increasing overall debt.
