ISLAMABAD, Sept 20: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has approved a proposal to upgrade pay scale of the employees of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) in lines of the salary structure of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC).

The proposal was forwarded by the federal ministry of food, agriculture and livestock and PARC to discourage the ever increasing brain drain from the country’s supreme agricultural research body.

Many scientists have left PARC in the recent years in search of greener pastures abroad and at home due to somewhat bleak future prospects in the council.

Addressing a gathering of PARC officers at the National Agriculture Research Council auditorium on Thursday, PARC chairman Dr M. E. Tusneem said the prime minister had approved the implementation of the Special Pay Scale (SPS) package for the employees of the council.

The finance ministry has also endorsed the pension and pay- fixation of PARC employees where the development project’s service would be included towards pension.

Meanwhile, the government has constituted a committee to develop procedures and guidelines for the implementation of the SPS package.

The package includes the adoption of PAEC pay scales for PARC with the condition that the latter should adopt those PAEC allowances which are in accordance with their own job description.

The management post pay scale package will be granted to the whole-time technical members and director general, NARC. Their terms will be regulated under the policy of MP scales.

The prime minister has also directed PARC to maintain a bare minimum core staff on a regular basis and the rest on contract. The finance division considers that the core staff should not exceed 30 percent of the total strength of PARC within the next two years.