By Agha Iqrar Haroon
A country that has recently averted financial collapse after receiving a very expensive and disastrous IMF bailout is lavishly increasing the salaries of state employees because this country thinks and works only for state employees and the rest of the population is a bunch of useless public who is only accepted by the state because it earns money for paying salaries for state employees otherwise this public could have been thrown in Indus River system.
Facing the 40 percent plus inflation and paying salaries out of loans it receives, Pakistan has announced a 30 to 35 percent increase in the salaries of its state employees in its recent budget, and notification was released on July 4, 2023
I strongly believe that we have already collapsed morally, and socially and that would later or sooner result in economic collapse. I know I live in a state where thousands of former employees of the State take half a million rupees as their monthly pensions, over one and a half million as monthly salaries and even there are many who take double the figures I mentioned above as monthly salaries and pensions while poor are selling their bodies for Rs. 1000 or so because they do not have anything left to sell.
A video report I recently watched explains prostitution business is throbbing in Pakistan and the report claimed that prostitution is not being opted for money making but rather clearing electricity and gas bills by those who are not state employees and who have no source of income or less source of income than services bills they are receiving. A single-question survey can be conducted in which you can ask people randomly in street “to whom the state of Pakistan is serving? I believe you will find the majority of answers telling you that the state is working only for state institutions and state employees while the economic opportunities are squeezing every passing day for the 230 million population with over 50 percent youth. Regrettably, our youth is mostly unskilled or semi-skilled so what option is left with it?
I believe that the ongoing census will tell us horrific data about the reality of our social structure (if this census is being done honestly and if its actual report is ever shared with the public). I trust our State knows the reality but it does not want to indulge in fixing or rectifying and it is following the policy of “let people decide themselves”. I firmly believe that the State is waiting for an explosion because this is the best option to fix the situation once social collapse completes its natural cycle. We will see how long it will complete the cycle.
As I mentioned above that people think that State is the mother of only state institutions and its employees, I would share recent news that would give my reader an idea of how the State is working for state employees.
The meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Aviation, on March 3, 2023, found an overpayment of Rs272 billion to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) pensioners. A special audit was recommended by the committee but I know nothing would come out of this and nobody would try for this mess because they all belong to an all-powerful cadre of society.
The meeting observed the payment of pensions and emoluments to retired employees of the CAA that retired between 2014 to 2015 and 2022 to 2023.
The committee was informed that the said retired employees were supposed to be paid pensions and other emoluments according to the CAA Pay and Pensions Regulations, 2014 (amended 2019); however, instead have been paid according to the Government of Pakistan as per CAA Service Regulations 2000. It was observed that employees were granted pension increases in line with the federal government till 2019. This resulted in an overpayment to CAA pensioners the disbursement of which amounts to PKR 272 billion. Just imagine how the State is working for State employees.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article/Opinion/Comment are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the DND Thought Center and Dispatch News Desk (DND). Assumptions made within the analysis are not reflective of the position of the DND Thought Center and Dispatch News Desk News Agency.
