KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices to the federal ministries of finance and communication as well as the inspector-general of National Highways and Motorway Police (NHMP) on a petition pertaining to reduction in salaries and withdrawal of allowances of NHMP employees.

The SHC bench directed the respondents to submit their replies in the next hearing on November 16, 2020 in the petition of Rizwan Ashraf and another, a written order of the court stated.

The petition stated that every NHMP official drew their salary and subsequent allowances comprising one basic pay and daily allowance for 20 days a month in the light of a summary sanctioned by the then prime minister in 1997. But the federal government systematically initiated the process of reduction in the pay to its employees, first in 2010 by freezing the allowance equal to one basic pay and then cutting it by half in 2017, followed by freezing of daily allowance.

Contrary to this, the pay packages of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which, like the NHMP, come under the umbrella of the federal government, have been increased in an unprecedented manner.

As a result of this, the difference between the pay of an NHMP inspector and that of a NAB inspector, for example, has widened to Rs80,000.

In spite of world recognition of the NHMP being an honest department (the Transparency International Report of 2006 and other UNO-related reports), the officers of the NHMP are being alienated through financial injustices which they feel is inflicted in disregard to their honest and courteous professional working.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020