Opposition Leader in Senate Senator Sherry Rehman Saturday criticised Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s decision to ‘gift’ a three-month bonus to federal government employees.
“By all standards this is an extraordinary and hugely questionable intervention on the eve of the end of term by an outgoing government. No law allows the federal government to announce a three months bonus salary,” said Rehman.
“It is a clear violation of election rules, which is why people are calling it pre-poll rigging The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) must immediately take notice and investigate this shocking move,” asserted the senator.
The statement came hours after the federal government announced additional three-month salaries for all of its employees, according to a notification issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.
Rehman, who is also the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) vice president, added: “The move is an open attempt to stack the decks in favour of the ruling party through the interim period. For such a major decision, how can the government introduce an unprecedented honorarium without any parliamentary oversight, especially when it is at public expense?”
She continued: “Our country is drowning in a pile of debt and a majority of our people are barely making ends meet. The decision will over-burden taxpayers, who are already struggling to shoulder the free-flowing and self-serving expenditures of the government.”
The senator said that the government could have invested in deteriorating healthcare system of the country instead.
“Pakistan has been spending a meagre 0.5 to 0.8% of its GDP on health for the last 10 years. If not healthcare, the amount could have been allocated to pay teachers, build classrooms or grant scholarships, as 40% of public sector primary schools are being operated without electricity and around 25% of schools do not even have boundary walls
This money could have built thousands of classrooms and sent millions of children to school, considering the fact that 25 million children are out of school in Pakistan,” she maintained.
“It is infuriating and disappointing to see that even in their final days of tenure, the PML-N still has its own agenda placed above the interest of the people. Instead of providing relief, they have consistently adopted policies that will overburden the poor,” concluded the opposition leader.
Published in Daily Times, May 27th 2018.
