The caretaker government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has decided to impose financial emergency in the province with a proposal to slash salaries of its employees by 25 percent, sources said on Wednesday. In order to save the province from default, a raft of recommendations including cut in pays has been readied. According to government sources, a high-level meeting was held at the Finance Department in Peshawar in which it was decided to slash salaries of the government employees by 25 percent and a summary in this regard will be forwarded to the caretaker chief minister. The huddle at the Finance Department reviewed in detail the financial crisis being faced by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and deliberated upon a set of options to save the province from default, the sources divulged.

The meeting laid their focus on three particular options to bring the financial crisis under control, the sources said and added, one of the recommendations was to withdraw the 35 percent increase in salaries of the government employees announced in the last budget, which would save Rs9 billion every month if implemented. Another option was to slash salaries by 25 percent which would save Rs8 billion monthly if applied. Another proposal was to withdraw allowances to the government employees including executive, health, professional and other allowances which would save the KP government another Rs2 billion every month. The meeting also recommended tightening of the financial discipline at the medical teaching institutions (MTI) hospitals of the province, the sources added.

 
Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)