LAHORE: The Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) on Thursday rejected the proposal of the National Austerity Committee (NAC) for slashing 10pc salaries of the government employees.

Earlier, the NAC was considering different proposals, including slashing the salaries of government employees by 10pc across the board, cutting down expenditures of ministries/divisions by 15pc, reducing the number of federal ministers, ministers of state, advisers from 78 to only 30 while the remaining should work on a pro bono basis.

PTU President Chaudhry Sarfraz said the employees were already facing difficulties and they would not accept any type of pay cut. He added that the government should stay away from these types of suggestions and take responsibility for the employee’s well-being.

PTU General Secretary Rana Liaqat said the inflation was increasing day by day and any pay cut would further deteriorate the condition of the public employees. He said that in the guise of austerity, the government was following anti-employee policies. He demanded a 50pc increase in salaries of all government employees to meet current inflation.

The government was finalising the recommendations on austerity as it would seek another International Monetary Fund (IMF) tranche but it was reluctant to implement the funds conditionalities. This hesitation had created a deadlock for the last two-and-a-half months with the IMF.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2023