–Bill proposes raising salaries of NA and Senate speakers from Rs225,000 to Rs879,000
ISLAMABAD: Lawmakers belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are all set to table a bill in the upper house of parliament that seeks a whopping 100 per cent increase in the salaries of the lawmakers and other perks for parliamentarians.
The draft bill is expected to be tabled by PTI chief whip Sajjad Toori, Dr Ashfaq Qamar, Dilawar Khan and other members.
The Salaries and Allowances Amendment Bill seeks an increase in salaries of Senate chairman and National Assembly speaker’s salary from the present Rs225,000 to Rs879,000 to match the salaries of Supreme Court judges.
Whereas, it also proposed the increase in the salaries of the Senate deputy chairman and National Assembly deputy speaker to match those of Islamabad High Court judges. The bill further seeks to increase the salaries of parliament members from Rs150,000 to Rs300,000.
The draft bill also calls for the travel allowance of parliamentarians to be increased to cover the cost of business class air tickets and AC class rail tickets. It further calls for 25 business class tickets to be allocated for each lawmaker and for the option of these tickets being used by members’ spouses and children to travel within the country to be available.
PPP’s Sherry Rehman has already made it clear that her party will not support the bill.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Information Firdous Ashiq Awan on Saturday said that while the PTI is not in majority in the Senate, it “will do everything in its power to make sure no injustice is done towards the public.”
Answering a question regarding PTI’s chief whip tabling the bill on Monday, Awan said that the party is united towards implementing the prime minister’s austerity drive. “If a member of the party is bringing up such a bill, they are doing it as an individual and the party does not support such measures.”
