LAHORE: Members of the Punjab Assembly have passed a bill to increase their own salaries by a majority vote, which will raise their salaries significantly.
The Punjab Assembly has passed the Punjab Bill 2024, a bill to revise the salaries of public representatives, by a majority vote. The new salaries will be implemented from January 1, 2025.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Peoples Party claimed to oppose the bill when it was presented in the House.
After the approval of the bill, the monthly salary of each member of the Punjab Assembly will increase from Rs 176,000 to Rs 400,000. Similarly, the salary of provincial ministers will increase from Rs 100,000 to Rs 960,000.
The salary of the Speaker of the Punjab Assembly will increase from Rs 125,000 to Rs 950,000, while the Deputy Speaker will receive a salary of Rs 120,000 instead of Rs 150,000.
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According to the bill, the salary of parliamentary secretaries will be increased from Rs 83,000 to Rs 451,000, and the salary of special assistants will be increased from Rs 100,000 to Rs 665,000.
The salary of advisors will be Rs 665,000 instead of Rs 100,000.
This bill was presented by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman, and it was nominally opposed in the House.
Among the opponents of the bill was the Leader of the Opposition, Ahmed Khan Bhachar, who raised the question: “Is this bill in accordance with the Parliamentary Rules Act, 1972?”
To this, the Speaker of the Punjab Assembly said: “This bill is absolutely correct according to the existing laws and is a good move by the government. Don’t worry, I will not let anything happen here against the Constitution.” The members of the Assembly congratulated each other after approving the salary increase bill.
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Pakistan Peoples Party MLA Nargis Faiz Malik said: “I do not agree with the decision to increase salaries, because we have not given any such relief to the people yet. So, in principle, we had no right to take any increase.”
According to Bibi Wadiri, MLA from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N): “We thank Allah, the Speaker of the Assembly, and our leadership, who have increased salaries considering the situation, because inflation is very high and those who come to the Assembly leave all their work behind.”
“They cannot look after their own business, so I think this increase has facilitated them.”
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Nadia Farooq said: “We had said that we would oppose this bill, and we did, but only those who are in power will be listened to — and have been listened to.”
