Defence minister slams massive salary hike for Senate, NA chiefs

Defence Minister and senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has dubbed as 'financial obscenity' the unprecedentedly massive raise in the salaries and perks and privileges of the Senate chairman and his deputy, and the National Assembly speaker and his deputy.

- Tariq Butt

In a post on X, he said that the massive increase in the salaries and financial perks of the speaker, deputy speaker, Senate chairperson and deputy chairperson falls under the category of financial obscenity. “Please keep the life of the common man in mind — our honour and dignity are all owed to him.”

Social media users were also quick to point out that the budget presented under the PML-N government announced no increase in the minimum wage, criticising its lack of willingness to provide any significant relief to the ordinary people.

Already, the opposition parties have severely lambasted the huge increase in the salaries of these elected position holders while people were suffering due to price hike and inflation.

The government has approved a more than five-fold increase in the salaries of the Senate chairman and the speaker taking it to Rsl.3 million a month. The Senate chairman and speaker's salaries have been raised from Rs205,000 to Rsl.3m, besides 50pc of the revised salary (Rs650,000) as the sumptuary allowance. The hike, with retrospective effect, has become effective in January 2025.