Brushing aside criticism over a proposed increase in their salaries, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has approved a major raise for parliamentarians.
Although the raise amounts to an around 300 per cent increase, the government has justified it by comparing it with the salaries being drawn by federal secretaries.
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The National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq had notified the raise, following the prime minister’s approval.
It has also been learnt that parliamentarians have received their revised salary for the month of January.
Despite their political rivalries, members of treasury and opposition benches had shown rare unity on the issue of increase in their salaries and other perks during a recently held meeting of the National Assembly’s Finance Committee.
The committee, headed by NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, approved the proposed increase of monthly salary of each MNA and senator to Rs519,000.
Previously, lawmakers received monthly salary of Rs180,000. It was learnt that actually Rs1million monthly salary was proposed for parliamentarians, but the NA speaker turned down the proposal but agreed on raising it to Rs519,000.
