LAHORE: The federal government is in a quandary after the prime minister’s announcement of granting an honorarium equal to three basic pays, and looking for different interpretations for face-saving in the wake of the finance division’s refusal to acknowledge the order.

Sources told Dawn here on Sunday that the deficit-ridden federal government has stopped the notification’s implementation, pleading that it cannot bear the burden of an estimated Rs25 to 30 billion even if the honorarium was limited to federal government employees. The amount may rise up to Rs75 billion if the special benefit is extended to armed forces personnel. The notification, however, did not mention employees of the armed forces.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had announced the honorarium through a notification issued by his secretary, Fawad Hassan Fawad, on Friday. The notification stated that the prime minister, who is also chairman of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet, is “pleased to order that all employees of the federal government shall be given honorarium equivalent to three basic pays for financial year 2017-18. No exception shall be allowed for payment in excess of the ceiling in any case”.

The prime minister had further “desired that for the financial year 2018-19 onwards, a policy may be formulated by the new elected government after Elections 2018”, the notification added.

Soon after this announcement, there was a ruckus among provincial government employees. Punjab, however, denied outright any such payment (despite Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s instructions) explaining that the province had already closed its budget books.

Punjab, in the meantime, acknowledged selected officers at the departmental as well as district, division and provincial levels by offering them cash prizes and commendation certificates signed by the chief minister and chief secretary. “The financial impact of this exercise falls within Rs20 million and much of this money was already lying in respective departments’ approved budgets for being a years-old practice,” a source in the Punjab Finance Department told Dawn.

Punjab government employees are bickering over the selection of officers for the acknowledgement, while the government does not see any discrimination in the selection process.

Regarding the federal government notification, the sources said, the government was looking for face-saving citing that the finance division was unaware of the notification and the order was meant only for those employees entitled to such a special incentive in routine.

The sources say the prime minister office’s notification will formally be clarified by the ECC that there was no approval for payment of the honorarium. The government could also interpret the order by saying that instead of over a million federal government employees, the honorarium will be paid to a few thousand employees belonging to various departments for their extraordinary work such as officials of the finance ministry, board of revenue and parliament for their budget-related work, as per practice.

Objecting to doling out a huge sum of around Rs30 billion to federal government employees ahead of the general elections 2018, the sources say the finance ministry never recommended any special “gift” for all federal government employees but a “grant of special performance incentive to the officials serving in the federal government”. They say the finance division’s summary was moved following the premier’s directions on a case regarding grant of special honorarium to the officers/officials of the office of the attorney general for Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2018