Balochistan govt’s generosity for favourites

The Balochistan government’s announcement for awarding one-month basic salary to around 20,000 out of 280,000 provincial employees as honoraria stunned everyone as on the one hand it made an appeal to world donor agencies to help the flood-affected people, while on the other it is doling out resources from the national exchequer to the favourites.

After torrential rains and floods, the provincial government held a donors’ conference in Islamabad urging the international community to help an estimated 6.0 million affected people, who are nearly half of the total population of the province.

But soon after this conference, the provincial government announced honorarium only for those employees working in the Civil Secretariat, Chief Minister Secretariat and attached departments and the Balochistan Police and Constabulary performing duties in the Red Zone.

The official of the finance department, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that such honorarium is awarded every year to these 20,000 to 25,000 employees amounting to over Rs.300 million. He said that the Governor Secretariat will soon move the summary for the honorarium for its employees whose number is around 500.

These favourite employees receive one month basic salary on the eve of every budget preparation, leaving others to protest against this discrimination.

In other provinces, deduction in salaries is being made from the salaries of government employees in the wake of the natural calamity. Even corporations and bank employees are donating in the flood relief funds, but the government of Balochistan is distributing money among the privileged employees.