Govt Hires 12 Consultants With Rs. 2 Million Salary After Firing Clerks

Amid proposals for austerity measures including downsizing clerical staff (60 percent reduction) and deletion of vacant posts to curtail mounting expenditure, the Prime Minister has approved appointments of over one dozen consultants ( Management Pay scales and Special Professional Pay Scale) with salary packages upto Rs. 2 million per month. The document states that the PM has approved appointments of over one dozen consultants with salaries ranging from Rs. 305,502 to Rs. 2 million per month salary package. PM has approved the appointment of Dr Nayab Babar as Project Director/Chief Investment Officer (PPS-12), PM initiatives support for IT startups, specialized IT training, and Venture Capital under the Ministry of Information and Telecom for a period of two years for a minimum Rs. 875,000 salary. PM has approved the appointment of Dr. Awais e Siraj as a member of Implementation and Monitoring, Amena Ali Kamil as a member of development communication and Dr Sohaib ul Hasan as a member Private Sector Development and Devolution (Initial of SPPS-1 scale) under the Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives on contract for period of two years. Meanwhile, PM has also approved the appointments of Dr Shazia Ghani and Nizamuddin Arshad as Team lead MP-1 scale on contract for a period of three years. Similarly, the PM also approved the appointments of Zahid Hussain Shiekh, and Arsalan Ahmed,  as senior Associate MP-II Scale, Finance and Economy on contract for a period of three years. Furthermore, the premier has also approved the appointment of Muhammad Ahmed and Yasir Arafat as Senior Associate MP-II scale Energy on contract for a period of three years. In addition, the PM also okayed the appointment of  Muhammad Dawood as senior Associate MP-II special projects and Initiative PM office on contract for a period of three years. Furthermore, PM also approved the appointment of Rizwan Ahmed as Research Associate MP-III scale, Research and Development, Sikandar e Azam as Digital Communication Officer MP-III Information and Broadcasting division, Shoaib Khan DG Telecom Wireless MP-11 scale Information Technology and Telecommunication Division and Aisha Tauqir as Research Associate MP-III scale Research and Development on contract for period of three years. Under the approved policy, the government is giving over Rs. 0.9 million salaries to MP-1 scale which includes Rs. 629,230 basic pay, Rs. 146,450 house rent, Rs. 28,500 utilities and Rs. 95,910 transport monetization. The salary package of MP-II includes Rs. 263,180  basic pay, Rs. 95,700 house rent, Rs. 11,970 utilities and Rs. 77,430 monetization transport allowance. Moreover, the salary package of MP-III includes Rs. 184,230  basic pay, Rs. 47,850 house rent, Rs. 8,380 utilities and Rs. 65,060 monetization transport allowance. Likewise, the approved remuneration structure for four different grades of SPPS, involves an all-inclusive remuneration package of Rs. 2 million for SPPS-1, up to Rs. 1.5 million for SPPS-II, Rs. 1 million for SPPS-III, and Rs. 500,000 per month for SPPS-IV. Similarly, the minimum salary package of Project Pay scale PPS-1 starts from Rs. 28,000 to PPS 22 Rs. 875,000 excluding the increments.