ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: Senator Prof Khursheed Ahmed of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) has refused to get the increase in the salary announced by the government, terming it a “political bribe”.

Deputy Information Secretary of Jamaat-i-Islami S.A. Shamsi told Dawn on Wednesday that the MMA senator believed that the 120 per cent increase in the salaries of the parliamentarians was unjustified keeping in view the growing rate of poverty and unemployment in the country.

Mr Shamsi said the chief of Jamaat-i-Islami and parliamentary party leader of the MMA in the National Assembly, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, had also announced that he would not get the increase in protest.

He said the MMA leaders believed that in the wake of a very dismal financial situation of the country, the increase in the salaries of legislators s was nothing but a “political bribe”.