ZAHEER ABBASI

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Government Assurances has decided to call Secretary Finance Shahid Mehmood to know the reasons for non-payment of honorarium, announced by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, to those employees who worked specifically for the budget 2017-18.

A meeting of the government assurances committee presided over by Mohammad Afzal Khokhar got briefing from the heads of various ministries and departments on payment of honorarium. The committee was also informed about discrimination between employees of Prime Minister’s Office and other ministries and divisions in terms of payment of honorarium.

A senior official of Islamabad police stated that honorarium equal to four basic pays was announced for Prime Minister Office employees at the end of June 2017 and payment was made immediately while the officials of other departments are still waiting for payment.

Inspector General of Islamabad Police Khalid Khattak said that after the announcement of honorarium by the finance minister, a letter was sent to the Finance Ministry for payment of honorarium without providing required funds. He sought the committee’s help in getting funds from Finance Ministry as there is no space for such a payment in the budget allocated to Islamabad police. “We can not make payment of honorarium to the employees deputed during the budget if Finance Ministry does not provide us funds,” he said.

Senior officials of Federal Government Services Hospital also stated that they were unable to make payment of honorarium from their own budget and urged the committee to take up the matter with the Finance Division.

Secretary information Ahmed Nawaz Sukhera proposed to the committee that the secretary finance should be invited to the meeting to know as to why the funds are not provided for payment of honorarium. The committee decided to call the secretary finance in the next meeting on the matter.

Lists of employees were presented to the committee with names of those employees whose services were utilized during budget preparation and budget session in the Parliament.

While discussing development schemes, Ministry of Energy also requested the committee to ask Finance Division for release of funds so that development schemes of the parliamentarians can be completed timely.