RAWALPINDI: About 325 employees, including 125 permanent staff, of the Parks and Horticulture Agency (PHA) have not been paid their salaries for June as the Punjab government could not release the funds.

It is feared that the employees would not get salaries even for July as the Punjab government is yet to release Rs168 million for this purpose.

The provincial government has asked all its departments to pay salaries to their employees before Eidul Fitr.

In June, the finance department in a letter asked the Rawal and Potohar town municipal administrations and the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) not to pay salaries to the employees of the departments which had been submerged with the PHA as the Punjab government would release Rs168 million to the PHA.

Earlier, more than 200 gardeners were getting salaries from the town municipal administrations and the RDA.

Before the formation of the PHA in August 2011, parks and their employees were handed over to the civic agency.

The RTMA annually paid Rs50 million to the PHA for the salaries but this fiscal year it did not allocate any fund for this purpose.

A senior official of the RDA told Dawn that the provincial government had been contacted to release the funds but the finance department did not reply to three letters sent to it for the funds.

He said the provincial government did not allocate funds to the PHA directly and it would be difficult for the agency to pay the salaries to the gardeners. “Funds had been given to the PHA for the development schemes and were spent on the beautification of the city areas,” he said.

A senior official of the RTMA added that it was the duty of the provincial government to pay the salaries of the PHA employees.

He said that the civic body had handed over all the employees to the PHA on the directives of the Punjab government.

When contacted, PHA Managing Director Akram Soban admitted that the PHA had no funds to pay the salaries to its 325 employees. “We have already informed the provincial government about the situation.”

He said that there was no direct funding for the PHA which relied on the grant from the provincial government to meet its expenses.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2014