LAHORE: To mitigate disparity in salaries of important offshoots of the criminal justice system and weak financial condition of the employees of the Punjab Prisons department, the Punjab government on Wednesday notified the much-anticipated “Prison Allowance” for the entire staff.

According to the notification issued by Punjab Governor Baligh-ur-Rehman, the Prisons officers from grade 1-4 will get an additional amount of Rs 3,000 while officers from grade 5-11 will get Rs 5,000, officers from grade 12-16 will get Rs 7,500, officers of grade-17 will get Rs 40,000, officers of grade-18 will get Rs 60,000, officers of grade-19 will get Rs 70,000, officers of grade-20 will get Rs 95,000 and officers of grade-21 will get Rs 100,000 per month.

The notification says that the allowance will not be granted to the officers who are under suspension or have been made OSD (officers on special duty) on charges of inefficiency or misconduct. It will also be not given to the officers who are on leave beyond 90 days, extraordinary leave, study leave or training abroad.

Commenting on the development, Punjab Prisons Inspector General Mirza Shahid Saleem congratulated the employees and hoped that the new allowance will improve their weak financial condition besides helping them strengthening the accountability mechanism.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022