Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervez Rasheed on Thursday said the topmost priorities of the government are to resolve the energy crisis and improve law and order in the country.
Talking to media personnel after inaugurating the ‘News Education Expo,’ he said the government would ensure financial discipline to achieve self-reliance.
The minister described the financial budget for the next fiscal year as pro-poor and people-friendly.
When asked about resentment over no raise in salaries of government employees, the information minister said 90 percent of the employees work under provinces.
“It is now the responsibility of the provinces to decide on their salaries,” he said.
He said those working in the presidency and at the Prime Minister House already had extra benefits and good salaries. The rest of the federal employees work in corporations, which decide on their salaries from time to time, he added.
When his attention was drawn to his party’s manifesto that envisaged a minimum wage of Rs 15,000 for labourers, the federal minister clarified that the manifesto spoke of a gradual increase in minimum wage levels.
He said the government will consider increasing minimum wage from next year.
The minister said the government had inherited an empty exchequer and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar must be credited for ensuring that employees continued to get timely salaries.
Responding to a question, Rasheed said the government had cut its expenditures and these resources would be utilised to address the energy crisis.
He said incentives had been announced for the youth, those without shelter, women, unemployed and investors.
Rasheed further said tax had been imposed on the wealthy class while tax burden was reduced on low-income groups.
He also said steps had been announced to increase revenue to help provide relief to the common man.
The information minister said expenditures of all ministries had been slashed including that of the PM House on the directives of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
“The government will pay Rs 500 billion circular debt to power generation companies within 60 days to reduce electricity outages,” the minister said.
He said the government had to pay debts worth billions of rupees and had limited resources.
