–Federal engineers approach Pay and Pension Commission for uniformity in allowances
ISLAMABAD: After the provincial governments granted engineers the technical/engineering allowance 1.5 times their basic pay, the engineers serving in various ministries, departments in the Centre have also demanded the same as their due right.
In a letter sent to the recently constituted Pay and Pension Commission at the Finance Division, the Federal Association of Government Engineers (FAGE) demanded equal treatment of engineers across the country.
On April 16, the federal government had constituted the commission to evaluate salary structures of the employees of the federal and provincial governments as well as the armed forces with a view to bringing some uniformity and review the need for further increase.
Addressing the chairman of the commission, the association of engineers, registered with Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) from all departments of federal government, demanded removal of disparity among those with similar qualification in Pakistan.
“Engineers are the backbone of the country and they work day and night to achieve the desired targets. But their salary structure and career growth in the public sector are not compatible with their work and education,” the letter read.
Through the letter, the federal engineers said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government granted technical allowance 1.5 times the initial basic pay to the engineers serving in various provincial and local government departments. Following the same pattern, Punjab, in a cabinet meeting held on April 24, 2019, approved the same technical allowance, they added.
They said that the prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) also accorded approval of the similar allowance working in their various government engineering departments and the relevant department in Sindh had also submitted proposals for provision of technical allowance along with its financial implications for approval from the chief minister.
“Keeping the afore-mentioned in perspective, it is clear that federal government engineers are deprived of the allowance while engineers of KP, Punjab and AJK have been granted the same. We expect that the federal government will adopt a uniform policy for all engineers and will take necessary steps for the betterment of the engineering community under its vision of ‘Naya Pakistan’,” the association said.
The recently-constituted six-member commission is headed by former finance secretary Abdul Wajid Rana. The members are Nazar Hussain Mahar, a retired bureaucrat, Dr Noor Alam, also a retired civil servant, Seema Kamil, the president of United Bank Limited (UBP), Zubyr Soomro, the chairman of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and Nausheen Ahmad of ICI Pakistan Limited.
The commission was set up at a time when the government was under increasing pressure to increase the salaries by at least 100-150 per cent and end discrimination in pays of various federal and provincial government departments.
The employees of the Pakistan Secretariat had registered a prolonged protest couple of months ago against the salary disparity created after two provincial governments approved additional allowances of up to 150 per cent. Besides the federal government also gave special allowances to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that created unease among the employees of the Pakistan Secretariat.
