LAHORE, June 1: Low-grade government employees want a marked increase in their salaries and substantial reduction in the cost of living in the next budget, which they say is immediately required to pull them out of the deplorable condition.

“The current level of salaries of employees between grade 1 and 16 is simply dismal and the ever-increasing cost of living has led to corruption among those performing the public service and depression among those who can’t make extra money,” several government employees and representatives of their union told Dawn.

According to the Punjab chapter of the All-Pakistan Clerks Association, there are 2.2 million low-grade employees in the country — one million in Punjab alone.

“These employees and their families are barely surviving under the worst economic conditions,” said union president Muhammad Afzal. He stressed that the government must improve the basic pay scales of all low-grade employees because their current grades, which were devised even before the creation of Pakistan, were too low to provide them a respectable living.

According to Afzal and many other government employees in the Punjab Civil Secretariat and other departments in Lahore, the last raise in their salaries was made in the 2005-06 budget but that was too negligible compared to the rate of inflation in the country. They said the minimum increase was of Rs1,200 and the maximum of Rs3,500.

“The present salary of a BS-1 messenger is Rs3,500, of a BS-5 clerk Rs4,500 and of a BS-16 superintendent between Rs10,000 and Rs12,000. Can any finance expert from the ministry make a monthly budget for any one of them? asks a clerk.

In contrast, the inflation during this fiscal year have gone up to 485 per cent. The prices of electricity have increased four times and oil six times. Pulses are being sold between Rs60 and Rs80 a kilogram, sugar Rs43 a kilogram and wheat flour between Rs15 and Rs18 a kilogram.

“I have not quoted the rate of mutton, beef or chicken because we cannot afford these items. For us meat is a luxury, which we don’t afford,” said Syed Tahir Raza, an office-bearer of the union.

He said that the government employees were not living like normal human beings because this was not possible for them under the given conditions. They could not even think of luxuries like air-conditioners or refrigerators that were now common in Pakistan, as simply providing “daal roti” to their children had become a challenge for them.

Many employees in the secretariat said they had not been given any residential quarter in any of the GORs in Lahore and were, therefore, compelled to live in rented houses of one or two rooms.

“Come and see where I live. It’s like a cattle pen because I don’t afford to pay rent for a proper house, let alone the idea of a decent place,” lamented Muhammad Arshad, a clerk in a government department.

An office superintendent said he had been promoted to BS-16 after a service of 30 years. His monthly salary was Rs13,000 and with this money he was supposed to pay the fees of his college-going children, provide them with food and clothing.

“I get a monthly medical allowance of Rs425 whereas per-visit fee of a doctor (specialist) is Rs500. I have to wear tidy clothes because I have to serve a senior bureaucrat. And you know I sometimes miss meals to save money for my children,” he said, adding an SHO of the same pay scale leads a prosperous life because he can earn a lot through his public dealings.

When asked as to how the government employees who didn’t have any opportunity to earn money by hook or by crook were leading lives, the superintendent said they work part time in offices in the evening or do some menial jobs like that of a waiter.

“Many vend eatables, drive rented motorcycle-rickshaws and assist cooks. The relatively educated among them augment their income by offering tuitions, working at the offices of lawyers or at bus terminals. And those who fail to secure any such job lives in a deep sea of depression.”

Afzal proposed that the government must increase salaries of the low-grade employees in proportion to the inflation because “they are the actual runners of the country and deserve some respite.”

He demanded 60 per cent house rent and conveyance allowance at the tehsil level. The BPS of junior clerks should be revised from five to nine, of senior clerks from seven to 11, of accounts clerks from nine to 13, of head clerks from 11 to 15, of superintendents from 11 to 15 and of messengers from one to four.

The government must restore the facilities of selection grade, educational increment and move-over, which were given by the Zia government and withdrawn by the incumbent regime. It must also increase the medical allowance and stop abolition of the facilities of pension and gratuity at the behest of the IMF.

“The minimum salary of a peon should be fixed at least at Rs16,245 to enable him lead a simple but respectable life,” he said, but didn’t stop alleging that the government’s main aim was to give relief to the assembly members, moneyed people, the bureaucracy and the police in the budget because they could help it win the next elections.