Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has approved a 20% increase in salary for the employees of the Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) – further distorting the pay structure of civil servants, which is already plagued by anomalies created by selective patronisation of departments.

According to a finance ministry official, the premier has approved the summary to give additional benefits to the AGPR, fulfilling their nine-month old demand. The decision will put an additional Rs1 billion burden on the national exchequer, the official added.AGPR employees had demanded the government either increase their salaries or withdraw the double salaries given to other departments.

The decision was taken on the recommendation of Finance Minister Saleem Mandviwala. Mandviwalla’s public relations officer confirmed that the PM approved the summary on the “request of the finance minister”.The move is also part of a series of similar governmentdecisions, taken to appease the bureaucracy. During the tenure of the PPP-led coalition government, massive perks have been given to bureaucrats, including car allowances up to Rs97,000 per month and increasing the size of the pool of grade-22 officers.

The latest decision has added the AGPR to the club of privileged departments that have been enjoying special pay structures, creating disparities in the civil servants’ pay structures. The privileged club consists of the Presidency, Prime Minister Secretariat, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), judiciary, armed forces, National Highway and Motorway Police, Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), National Accountability Bureau and the PM’s security.

An official of the finance ministry admitted that the decision will cause frustration among the employees of other departments and also place the finance ministry under pressure to provide them the same treatment.It was the third such decision in less than nine months. Earlier, the federal government doubled the salaries of the employees of FBR and the Federal Investigation Agency.

The decision also contradicts the Pay and Pension Commission’s recommendations to bring an end to ongoing discrimination.
Currently, a grade 22 civil servant will receive a monthly salary of Rs122,936. The same official, if working in ERRA, will get Rs154,117, Rs187,286 if he works for FBR, Rs170,747 if he works for the Presidency or the Prime Minister Secretariat, and Rs154,117 if he works for NAB.

The grade 22 officer of the Supreme Court, Islamabad High Court, Federal Shariat Court and the law ministry will get the highest salary of Rs234,685. In the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the grade 22 officer is getting Rs149,961 and a lieutenant general of the army will get Rs140,148.

Similarly, a grade 1 employee of a civil department will get Rs15,305 per month. In FBR the amount goes up to Rs22,003, in ERRA Rs18,193, in Presidency and PM Secretariat Rs20,273, in NAB Rs18,408, in the National Highway Authority Rs29,001, in the Model Traffic Police Rs29,433, in the Eagle Force Rs19,625, in PM’s Security Rs20,921, in ISI Rs18,113 and in the armed forces Rs19,452. The judiciary’s grade 1 employee, meanwhile, receives Rs32,686.

Another senior official of the finance ministry said the decision will contribute in further exploding the wage bill that currently stands at roughly 60% of the total expenditures of running the civil government.