ISLAMABAD: In the wake of brewing financial crisis in the country, salaries and pensions in some federal government departments are not being paid on time.

Employees of Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) have not received their salaries for more than a month and the finance ministry has turned down the file for release of funds due to financial constraints.

The PCSIR was established in 1953 under Societies Act to promote science and technology in the country, but employees in the state-owned entity have not received their salaries of November till now.

According to the budget book, the earmarked fund in terms of salaries of around 2,762 employees of PCSIR is around Rs68 million per month, but the actual amount was far less as many posts were vacant in the research institute.

The PCSIR comes under the ministry of science and technology. Talking to Dawn, a senior official of the ministry said that since the PCSIR was a research-based institute and not a revenue generating entity, its budget was released by the federal government.

“Earlier, the federal government used to release funds for two quarters in one tranche, but since the start of this fiscal year, funds for only four months have been released by the finance ministry,” the official said.

“As a result there was limited operational budget for November and soon there will not be enough fund to run day-to-day affairs,” the official said.

Meanwhile, sources in the ministry of science and technology said that Minister Agha Hassan Baloch had personally taken up the issue with finance minister Senator Ishaq Dar, but eventually the file related to the release of funds for PCSIR was turned down by the joint secretary of budget in the finance ministry.

Sources said that the ministry had been conveyed by the JS office of budget that salaries of some other departments of the ministry of science and technology might be delayed next month, too.

The departments include Pakis­tan Science Foundation, Pakistan Museum of Natural History and Pakistan Scientific and Techno­logical Information Centre.

Meanwhile, pensions of around 4,000 retired employees of Radio Pakistan have been released after a gap of more than three months, but the information ministry was unclear about the payment of pension next month.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2022