In rare unity, govt and opposition agree to raise lawmakers' salaries to over Rs0.5m

• Lawmakers' salaries, privileges hiked to Rs519,000 per month.
• NA speaker rejects demand to increase salaries to Rs1 million.
• Last increase in salaries was seven years ago, say sources.
  

ISLAMABAD: Providing a major financial boost to parliamentarians, the National Assembly’s Finance Committee has approved a proposal to raise the salaries and privileges of Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) and senators to Rs519,000 per month, The News reported on Sunday.

Parliamentary sources said that the NA committee held a meeting with the National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq before approving the increase in salaries and privileges of the parliamentarians.

Senior members of all the parliamentary parties, including the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and others held an informal meeting with Sadiq and pleaded their case for an increase in salaries of the MPs.

They also added that the speaker had sent the finance committee recommendations to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for approval.

The adjustment in lawmakers' salaries aligns their remuneration with that of federal secretaries and brings it on par with the benefits received by the Punjab Assembly members.

The lawmakers, as claimed by the sources, had demanded a salary of Rs1 million per month but the proposal was rejected by Sadiq.

With no official announcement of the meeting, the sources noted that an increase of Rs15,000 was approved in the salaries of parliamentarians seven years ago and their remuneration had not been increased since then.

Meanwhile, despite their existing political differences, all parliamentary parties from both sides of the benches including the PPP, PTI, PML-N and others are on the same page with regard to the increase in salaries.

It is pertinent to know that the Punjab Assembly, in December, had also unanimously approved a bill to significantly increase lawmakers' salaries, raising them from Rs76,000 to Rs400,000.

Apart from the tweaks to the parliamentarians' remuneration, the assembly also hiked the provincial ministers' salaries from Rs100,000 to Rs960,000.

The speaker's salary was increased from Rs125,000 to Rs950,000, whereas that of the deputy speaker was hiked to Rs800,000 from the previous Rs120,000.

Furthermore, parliamentary secretary are to be paid Rs451,000 as opposed to the previous amount of Rs83,000; adviser to the CM from Rs100,000 to Rs665,000; special assistant to the CM from Rs100,000 to Rs665,000.