PPP rejects token increase in pensions, salaries: calls budget anti-worker

Liaquat Ali

Islamabad: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Tuesday rejected the federal government’s proposed 7% and 10% increase in pensions and salaries, calling it “anti-worker” and “anti-people.” Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed, senior PPP leader and Incharge of the PPP Labour Bureau, strongly criticized the federal budget in response to the Finance Minister’s speech on Monday.

Speaking to the media, Manzoor said the federal budget has completely ignored the working class and salaried segments, as well as the key recommendations proposed by the PPP. He pointed out that there has been no increase in the minimum wage or the Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) pensions, nor were any meaningful relief measures introduced for workers and pensioners.

“The proposal to limit family pension to just 10 years after the pensioner’s death is not only absurd but inhumane,” he remarked. “Are the elderly expected to survive on air after that?”

He also criticized the continuation of the privatization of national institutions, including PIA, calling it an unwise and detrimental policy. “We demand the government immediately reconsider the budget proposals and announce a minimum 50% increase in salaries and pensions, along with the merger of all ad-hoc allowances into basic pay—as was done by PPP during its tenure.”

Chaudhry Manzoor also demanded a 100% increase in EOBI pensions, which currently stand at just Rs10,000 per month, and urged the government to raise house rent and conveyance allowances in line with prevailing market rates.

Additional demands included:

Increasing the death grant from Rs800,000 to Rs1 million
Increasing the marriage grant from Rs400,000 to Rs500,000
Halting all ongoing privatization and outsourcing processes, especially in national institutions like Utility Stores, PASSCO, NFC, and Pak PWD
Reinstating all terminated employees, including 5,000 workers recently laid off from Utility Stores
Regularizing all contractual and daily wage employees, following the precedent set by the PPP from 2008–2013
Implementing housing schemes for industrial workers on an ownership basis
Ensuring registration of all categories of workers and farmers with EOBI and Workers Welfare Fund—an initiative already undertaken by the Sindh government

Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed announced that the PPP Labour Bureau would present all these concerns to the party’s top leadership. “We will urge them to oppose the Finance Bill in its current form and prevent its passage through Parliament,” he said.