Allah Bux Qaiser led a group of about 100 teachers from Karachi and other parts of the country and spent six days at a tent in Aabpara Chowk to press the government to raise their salaries and revise pay scales.
On June 10, during President Asif Ali Zardari’s address to the joint session of parliament, the teachers wanted to stage a protest outside the parliament house. However, Deputy Speaker National Assembly Murtaza Javed Abbasi approached the teachers and assured them that all their genuine demands would be met. The deputy speaker also told the teachers that he would convey their demands to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
Mr Qaiser, who is the president of All Pakistan Teachers Association, waited for the budget speech of the finance minister on June 12 with the hope that the teachers would get at least 30 per cent pay increase along with the revision of their pay scales. But the budget speech came as a big shock not only for Mr Qaiser but also for thousands of other teachers and government employees.
Though Finance Minister announced on June 15 to increase salary by 10 per cent, he termed it ‘peanuts’ keeping in view the increase in taxes, and decided to continue their protest.
He said they were expecting a handsome pay increase in the budget but Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was now backing out of his election promises.
During his electioneering, the Palistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Nawaz Sharif had promised that if he was voted to power he would increase the wages of the employees and address other public issues such as energy crisis, inflation, unemployment and price hike.
Talking to Dawn, Mr Qaiser said he had been having sleepless nights since the announcement of the budget. “I feel as I have failed to convey the message and problems of the government servants to the decision makers,” he maintained.
“It seems that our train march from Karachi in this hot and humid weather condition will be in vain,” he said. Being leader of his community it was his responsibility to ensure that all their problems are addressed, he said.
Mr Qaiser said despite severe heat, they started the train march from Karachi on June 1 and reached Islamabad on June 4 and then spent another six days on the road.
“We did all this to ensure that the employees get a handsome pay raise. However, it seems that no one cares about the teachers community as 10 per cent increase will not solve their problems,” he said.
“In his first tenure in 1990, Nawaz Sharif gave flour allowance of Rs20 to the government employees from grade 1 to 22. Again his new government first refused to raise the pay but when we protested it increased the salaries by only 10 per cent,” he said.
Prof Tahir Mahmood, the president of the Federal Government Colleges Teachers Association, said it was for the first time in the history of Pakistan that government employees would not get any benefit even after the increase.
He said the soaring general sales tax (GST) and other taxes would neutralise the increase in pay rather overburden them.
Rasheed Khan, the president of Central Academic Staff Association of Islamabad Model Colleges (IMC), also strongly reacted to the budget proposals.
“We think that the budget proposals are very unrealistic and show the government’s ignorance about the challenges being faced by the academic community.
The budget also belied the tall claims of the government that it was people-friendly,” he said.
“Besides, the IMC faculty has been deprived of the 20 per cent raise already granted to the AGPR and Pak Secretariat employees during the last days of the previous government,” he said.
Yasser Chattha, another office-bearer of CASA, said the finance minister had been misled by the bureaucrats of his ministry that all employees had been given 20 per cent allowance by the previous government.
“In fact, the budget has caused a loss to the academic community. Their take-home salaries will not increase because of rising income tax and withdrawal of tax concessions.”
Although the public sector employees are criticising the government for only 10 percent increase in salaries, experts take the issue differently.
Raja Amir Zia, a professor of economics, while talking to Dawn said the PPP-led coalition government had increased the salaries by almost 100 per cent during its tenure. Because of this, the economy had to suffer.
“The PML-N formed the government just a few days before the budget announcement so they must have followed the recommendations of the bureaucracy. It will be a big achievement, if the government reduces the budget deficit by 2.5 per cent and removes the circular debt,” he said.
He said if everything went according to the government plan, salaries could be increased by 20 per cent or even more in the 2014-15 budget.Economist Iftikhar Ahmed said an increase in taxes always reduced inflation because it cut down the buying power of consumers. In the long run, it will boost the economy and increase business activities.
“Unfortunately, the government has not considered other reasons which are damaging our economy. Because of the poor security in the country, foreign investments are not coming. The government should ensure durable peace to attract foreign investments,” he said.
“Capital flight is another issue which has to be addressed. The government should resolve the energy crisis, a prerequisite for putting the country on road to prosperity,” he said.