Ex-Senate Chairman Slams Finance Minister for His Double Standards on Granting New Allowances to Bureaucrats

Ex-Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani on Monday highly criticized the federal government for forming an eight-member committee to revise/grant new allowances to government servants. He accused Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb of having “double standards” and only making unconstitutional allocations from provincial funds to support the bureaucracy. Rabbani accused the federal government of undermining fiscal devolution granted by the 18th Amendment, highlighting recent remarks by the finance minister about revisiting the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award. The 7th NFC Award, implemented in 2010-11, increased provincial shares in vertical resource distribution, a move that remains a point of contention between the Centre and provinces. Rabbani claimed the federal government seeks to reduce provincial shares under the NFC to support bureaucratic luxuries, warning against any unconstitutional reallocations of provincial funds. He asserted that the provinces would resist such violations of the 1973 Constitution. It bears mentioning that the federal government has initiated efforts to provide lucrative allowances to its employees, in addition to a planned salary hike of up to 25 percent from July 1, 2024, despite revenue collection shortages.