The finance ministry on Monday clarified in a statement that no proposals to raise government salaries were under consideration after media reports claimed that government salaries and pensions would remain unchanged in the upcoming fiscal year.

According to the statement, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb submitted a written reply to a question asked by PTI MNA and Chief Whip Malik Amir Dogar during today’s session of the National Assembly, about the possibility of increased salaries, allowances and pensions in the next fiscal year.

“The finance minister did not make any such announcement or statements while addressing the floor of the National Assembly,” the statement read. “The news broadcast attributed to him in this regard is not based on reality.”

The statement added that in his written response, Aurangzeb did not mention any revisions to pay scales for government employees.

The ministry added that it has informed the NA about the situation and that at present, “the proposal to revise the pay scales of federal government employees for the next financial year and to significantly increase their salaries and allowances is not under consideration”.

However, Aurangzeb confirmed that “after receiving the revised market survey from the ministry of housing and works, the issue of increasing the rent limit for availing the services of privately owned residential houses is under consideration”.

In the 2024-25 budget, the government announced a 20-25 per cent increase in salaries and a 15pc increase in pensions for government servants.

This was notified in July last year, with the government allowing Ad hoc Relief Allowance-2024 (ARA) at the rate of 25pc of running basic pay for basic pay scale (BPS) 1 to 16 and 20pc for BPS 17 to 22.

This applied to all federal government employees including armed forces personnel, civil armed forces and civil employees, as well as the civilians paid from Defence Estimates.