February 10, 2008	Sunday	Safar 02, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Feb 9: The recent increase in the ceiling of federal government employees is no match to the rents of private houses in the federal capital, which have registered an unprecedented increase in the last couple of years.

The government has increased rental ceiling of federal government employees in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar and exempted them from deduction of five per cent maintenance charges which will be effective from January 1, 2008.

“Rents of private houses in the federal capital have increased manifold and the government has announced just 10 per cent increase in house rent which is peanuts,” said Mohammad Rafiq, a government employee.

He said the ceiling of BPS 1-2 had been increased from Rs1,590 to Rs1,750, which was a joke with the lower grade employees, adding that with such amount one could not even get a single room in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

A stenotypist, Raja Ashfaq, told this agency that grade 11 and 13 employees would get only an increase of Rs560 in Islamabad while grade 14-16 workers would get Rs705 increase, adding that living in private accommodation in the federal capital was a Herculean task.

Ghaffar Ali, a grade 17 officer, said: “Our ceiling has been increased from Rs9,325 to Rs10,260 in Islamabad whereas the rent of a portion of a house in Islamabad is Rs16,000 to Rs22,000.”

He said even the higher grade officers of BPS-20 and above could not afford to live in the federal capital in private accommodation within their ceiling limit which had been raised from Rs15,575 to Rs17,130 in Islamabad and Rs14,730 in other stations.

He said a proposal of over 100 per cent increase in ceiling of federal government employees was given to the finance ministry which was slashed to just 10 per cent.

The rents of houses witnessed unprecedented increase in the country in general and in the federal capital in particular following an increase in price of land during the last three years.

“Gone are the days when grade 17 and 18 employees were preferring to live in Islamabad due to its pleasant environment.

Majority of them have now shifted to Rawalpindi and the suburbs of the capital,” said Gulzar Ahmed, a senior government officer.

The federal government employees have rejected the recent increase in ceiling and demanded of the government to bring it according to the present market.

There are only 22,000 official accommodations for over 80,000 federal government employees in Islamabad. Therefore majority of the employees are living in rented houses in the twin cities.—APP