ISLAMABAD, Nov 14: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar has said the move to increase the salaries and perks of the members of parliament is ill-advised and ill-timed.

In a statement issued here on Friday, the PPP spokesman said it was insensitive to the miseries of the poor and suicides by the jobless.

On the one hand mere lip service is paid to alleviate the sufferings of the poor, while on the other the salaries and perks of the already privileged are being enhanced, Mr Babar said.

“Before calculating a pay raise for the MPs, the government should have calculated how a low-paid employee in BPS-1 to 15 balanced the home budget.

“If for no other reason, at least as a token of remorse for suicides by the poor the pay raise for the MPs should have been put on hold,” he added. He said pays and perks must commensurate with the work and needs. What work the parliament members have done during the last one year, he added.

“Other than the Finance Bill, the National Assembly during the last one year passed only one bill, providing more powers to the prime minister to sack public-sector employees without due process.

“In the Senate not a single legislative business has been transacted so far. It has only scuttled questions and resolutions on issues of public importance,” the PPP spokesman said.

He said standing committee of the National Assembly and the Senate have not yet been formed.