Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday evening excoriated the approval of a fivefold increase in the salaries and perks of the speaker of the National Assembly (NA) and chairman of the Senate, calling it “financial obscenity”.

 

“The huge increase in the salaries and financial incentives of the speaker, deputy speaker, chairman [of the] Senate and deputy chairman of the Senate falls under the category of financial obscenity,” the defence czar wrote in a post on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle.

 

“Keep in mind the life of the common man, all our honors and dignity are due to him,” he added.

 

 

Last week, the federal government approved a 500 percent increase in the salaries of Chairman of the senate and the NA Speaker, taking it to Rs1.3 million a month.

 

A leading English newspaper, while citing a notification which was issued by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs on May 29, reported earlier this week that the salaries had been raised from Rs205,000 to Rs1.3million, besides 50pc of the revised salary (Rs650,000) as the sumptuary allowance.

 

In May, the National Assembly’s Finance Committee, headed by NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, approved the proposed increase of the monthly salary of each Member of National Assembly (MNA) and senator to Rs519,000. Previously, lawmakers received a monthly salary of Rs180,000.

 

“The federal ministers and ministers of state shall receive a monthly salary equivalent to the salary of a member of the National Assembly,” read the ordinance.

 

During the post-budget press conference in Islamabad on Wednesday, Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb justified the huge hike, telling reporters to “check when the salaries of ministers, ministers of state, and parliamentarians were last adjusted.”

 

He later said that it was in 2016. “If the salaries kept increasing every year, there would be no need to increase them all at once,” the finance minister added.