Federal Cabinet decides against raising salaries of parliamentarians

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday announced that the Federal Cabinet has rejected a summary regarding an increase in salaries of Parliament members.

“There will be no 10% increase in the ad hoc relief in basic salaries of Chairman Senate, Deputy Chairman Senate, NA Speaker, Deputy Speaker and other parliamentarians,” Fawad Chaudhry said while addressing a post-Cabinet press conference in Islamabad.

The Information Minister asserted that the parliamentarians should set an example especially when the economic situation was so weak. “It is a part of the austerity program initiated by Prime Minister Imran Khan”, he said, adding that the PM House had also made huge savings because of it.

Briefing the media about the decisions taken in the cabinet meeting, the federal minister said that the Cabinet has decided to introduce comprehensive reforms in the criminal justice system.

Minister for Law Farogh Naseem gave a detailed briefing to the meeting about the proposed criminal law reforms. “These reforms will change the entire system of criminal justice and address matters relating to delay in trials and registration of FIRs,” he added.

He further said improving the justice system is on the agenda of Prime Minister Imran Khan, adding that this matter would now be discussed in the Cabinet Committee on law and then these reforms will be enforced.

During the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed his resentment over delay in procurement of wheat. He directed the provinces including Punjab to take steps for the release of wheat stocks.

Fawad Chaudhary was confident that the prices of wheat flour would gradually come down in the wake of issuance of wheat release schedule by Punjab. The cabinet was informed that 5G will be launched in the country next year and several companies are showing interest in it.

Alluding to the cyber-attack on the website of FBR, the Information Minister said that inquiry has revealed that most of the data remained safe. He said the FBR has now hired a company for protection of data.

He said the Ministry of Information Technology informed the cabinet that one million attacks have so far been carried out on our websites this year, which were foiled by the NTC.  He said Pakistan has a comprehensive framework for cyber security which is further being strengthened.