Islamabad, Dec 14 (IANS) Not satisfied with a 20 percent pay hike, Pakistani bureaucrats now say they want perks at par with retiring superior court judges – for instance, the purchase of cars at depreciated value.
“After having acquired all the perks and privileges allowed to retiring army generals a few months ago, the insatiable lust of the Islamabad bureaucrats has now pushed them to demand the perks and privileges given to retiring judges of the superior courts as well,” The News said Friday.
“In 2006, the special bounty offered to the top bureaucrats at the cost of public money, included special pay at the rate of 20 percent; post-retirement lifetime facility of a driver/orderly; and one residential plot (in addition to the one allotted through the federal government employees housing scheme),” it added.
Without referring to this facility and overlooking the controversy it generated, an official working paper now seeks “purchase of official cars at depreciated price by retired federal secretaries on the analogy of the facility available to judges of the superior courts”.
In the name of “rationalisation of entitlement for hotel accommodation during outstation visits”, the federal secretaries are considering a proposal under which senior bureaucrats may be authorised to stay in five-star hotels during their outstation visits.
The working paper, prepared by the cabinet secretary for a secretaries committee, also refers to a 1991 decision of the then prime minister permitting the purchase of official cars at depreciated prices by the judges who retired from the Supreme Court, high courts and the federal Shariat court.
“The 1991 order, while saying that the facility would enable the retired judges to maintain their dignity after retirement, clearly noted that the facility would not be admissible to the civil servants or personnel of armed forces of comparable status or in enjoyment of comparable facilities,” The News noted.
The finance ministry, at that time, had observed that the order was flawed, following which the cabinet secretariat moved a new proposal the same year on purchase of cars by retiring bureaucrats and armed forces officers.
“It was proposed that officers of the federal government entitled to the use of official cars and personnel of the armed forces of comparable status may be eligible for the facility,” The News said.
“The cabinet division had also proposed that the retiring officers may either be given an option of purchasing the official car in his use at the depreciated value or buying a new locally assembled car of 1000cc or 1300cc free of all duties. No decision was, however, taken by the then prime minister on the above proposal.
“Now the cabinet secretary proposes that after the secretaries committee agrees to the proposal, which were never approved before, cabinet division will move a summary for the approval of the prime minister through finance division,” the newspaper said.