MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) cabinet on Tuesday accorded approval to a piece of law envisaging more than 200pc raise in the salaries and allowances of prime minister and ministers, with only one dissenting voice.

Under the proposed law, the monthly salary, sumptuary, equipment and dearness allowance of prime minister has been raised from Rs89,000 to Rs305,000. His daily allowance has been raised from Rs1,000 to Rs5,000, while leave allowance of Rs 39,000 has been enhanced to one complete salary. The prime minister’s discretionary grant of Rs300,000 per annum has also been raised to Rs1 million.

Similarly, the salary, sumptuary, equipment and dearness allowance of ministers has been raised from Rs55,000 to Rs 155,000.

Cabinet approves the increase with only one dissenting voice

The daily allowance of ministers has been enhanced from Rs1,000 to Rs3,000, while their leave allowance has also been raised from Rs35,000 to one complete salary.

The annual discretionary grant of ministers has been increased from Rs100,000 to Rs500,000.

Sources told Dawn that except for senior minister Ch Tariq Farooq, all other cabinet members supported the bill ‘over enthusiastically’.

Mr Farooq maintained that since the media was not too friendly to the PML-N government, such a move might meet strong criticism particularly when the government faced serious budgetary constraints and had repeatedly vowed to scale down non-development budget, sources said.

However, the senior minister did not find any taker of his stance at the meeting.

Instead, minister for information Mushtaq Minhas cited examples of other provinces, particularly the huge Punjab province, saying the ministers there were drawing “considerably higher” perks and privileges than their counterparts in AJK.

“We cannot and do not do corruption and (therefore) we ought to have reasonable salaries,” the sources quoted the information minister as saying.

The cabinet also approved an ex-agenda item, allowing purchase of 4200cc reconditioned five-door jeeps for the ministers.

Interestingly, successive AJK governments have long been criticised for purchase and uncontrolled use of luxurious vehicles by government officials and the PML-N had vowed to bring substantial reforms in this regard.

In its session on October 17 last year, the cabinet had also constituted a committee for replacement of the existing policy on allocation and use of official vehicles by a new one.

However, sources said, instead of discussing the “shilly-shally” vis-a-vis preparation of that policy or taking any decision to withdraw additional and without entitlement vehicles from senior officials, the cabinet went for purchasing new opulent jeeps for itself.

Among other decisions, the cabinet decided to hold long due local bodies’ elections under the AJK Election Commission and directed the authorities concerned to complete delimitation process for these polls at the earliest.

It also decided to establish AJK Food Authority on the pattern of Punjab as well as a food-testing laboratory will also be established to ensure distribution and sale of unaltered and hygienic food items in AJK.

An amendment in the AJK Workmen’s Compensation Act 2016 was approved to enhance the amount of compensation from Rs200,000 to Rs400,000 for the dependents of the workers, losing their lives in the line of duty.

Another committee was constituted to suggest measures within one month for industrial promotion and facilities to investors in AJK.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2017