March 23, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 14, 1429

ISLAMABAD, March 22: The employees of the Election Commission of Pakistan have expressed concerns over the decision of the chief election commissioner to slash their polls duty honorarium from three months’ basic pay to just one.

After successful conduct of the February 18 elections, the employees were expecting admiration from the government but they are now perturbed over the decision of CEC Qazi Mohammad Farooq to slash the honorarium,” an official of the commission on condition of anonymity told Dawn.

“Being a senior officer, we can only curse our luck but the lower staff is not at all happy and quite resentful,” another officer conceded, adding whatever we would be getting would not commensurate with our hard work during the election days.

An insider said the prime minister secretariat had announced three months’ basic pay as reward for the staff of the election commission to acknowledge their hard work during the February 18 general and October 6 presidential elections.

He claimed that the incentive was also approved by the finance ministry but the CEC had slashed the honorarium on the grounds that it would put extra burden on the national exchequer.

Around 2,000 staff of the commission would be affected by the decision, he added. The officers and staff members of the Islamabad secretariat also held a meeting with secretary Election Commission Kunwar Mohammad Dilshad on Saturday.

They registered their protest with the secretary and termed the decision ‘unjust’ and aimed at economic strangulation of the already hard-pressed government servants. They called upon Mr Dilshad to get the decision reverted to the three-month honorarium.

Resentment has also been shown at the provincial and district offices, the source added.

When contacted, Mr Dilshad said a decision to this effect was still under process and would be made keeping in view audit objections. “A final decision would be taken after April 15 when the commission would complete the process by holding be-elections on seats vacated by successful candidates or where elections were deferred due to some reasons,” he added.

However, he clarified that usually one-month’s basic pay was paid as election honorarium to the staff.