For the last 45 months, it is a fond practice of ruling party to enhance its vote bank by bribing them with various types of benefits. Benazir Income Support Fund targeted some one crore voters with two trillion rupees extorted from the poor in taxes and famished the national exchequer.
Another has been to raise salaries and pension rates earlier by 50 percent to 25 pereent and again this year 15 percent and 20 percent at eleventh hour on the pretext of relief against inflation, improving efficiency.
The question is why reward the corrupt serving or retired employees with huge increases while drying up our national exchequer, devastating energy, utilities sectors, prices of daily essentials astronomically rising.
Whereas the non-government, private sector retired employees, who have nothing to fall back upon, have become children of a lesser god to be butchered without mercy, who yet burn themselves in 48 C heat but would not temper the electricity meter nor beg, borrow or steal but starve, remain sick since they cannot afford medicine.
Being citizens of the state, they are still paying indirect taxes for the incompetent leaders to win votes in the forthcoming elections. If this money had been diverted to the welfare of common man, nation could have been saved from horrible load-shedding, water scarcity, horrendous price hike and others. I would request all the leaders and parliamentarians to frustrate the pay-pension increase aimed to generate vote bank (pre-poll rigging of political governments).
AISHA JAMAL
Jehlum
