Pakistan’s federal bureaucracy is facing a silent but serious conflict over salaries. It is not merely a dispute about annual increments or routine budgetary relief. It is a deeper institutional problem in which employees working under the same Basic Pay Scale often take home vastly different salaries because of special allowances, executive allowances, judicial allowances, utility allowances, project allowances, honoraria, housing privileges and department-specific benefits. In simple words, two officers or officials may belong to the same grade, serve the same state, and face the same inflation, yet one may receive a far higher monthly package than the other.

This is now one of the most demoralising issues inside Pakistan’s public sector. Employees from less-privileged ministries, divisions, attached departments and subordinate offices argue that more than 50 federal ministries, departments, authorities, regulatory bodies and special institutions are drawing enhanced salaries or allowances, while others remain stuck with ordinary pay despite being on the same scale. The complaint is no longer limited to clerks or low-grade staff. It has spread across officers, technical staff, teachers, researchers, accountants, field employees and administrative workers who feel that Pakistan has created two bureaucracies; one privileged and protected, the other underpaid and ignored.

The latest decision to increase the utility allowance of Supreme Court employees by 100 per cent has once again brought this issue into public debate. The allowance is meant to cover gas and electricity expenses and will reportedly be met from the approved budget of the Supreme Court.

No one can deny that utility bills have become painful for all salaried households. Court employees, like all other employees, deserve protection from inflation and rising energy costs. But the question is unavoidable; if gas and electricity bills justify a 100 per cent utility allowance increase for one institution, why should the same logic not apply to employees of other federal departments?

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